Into the darkness
by R.O.TR
Summary: A seemingly routine mission has led the girls into a seemingly impossible situation. Threatened with a new enemy they must question whether they will ever see home again. Please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I do not own Azumanga Daioh. _

* * *

_And man looked on and saw the power that God possessed, and decided he wanted it for himself._

In the not too distant future political strife and terrorism had led to desperate measures across several continents. In a bid to strengthen military might, all people of a suitable age experienced training in the Japanese armed forces. With this increased uptake, the members of a certain class found themselves together.

Chapter One

The briefcase flew out of his hand as the tiny plane shook violently. Tying his seatbelt tightly, he gripped the armrests with both hands and looked across at his aide. His eyes were wide as the plane continued to shake, and the lightning flashed outside.

"This doesn't seem bloody normal to me!" he said.

"I agree."

"Damn it, I hate planes! Why did I-"

He was interrupted as his stomach suddenly lurched up into his mouth as the plane began to descend quickly, rapidly falling out of the sky. The man leant down as he felt the plane fall.

"Make sure your seatbelts are tied up back there!" yelled the pilot. "We're going down!" He was levelling out the plane, but it wasn't enough.

"Ah shit."

The pilot watched with a resigned look as the ground rushed towards the cockpit. With a faint yell he was killed instantly as the cockpit was crushed. The rest of the plane hung above the ground before groaning slightly and falling to the floor, smashing into the ground. High above the plane lightning flashed, and the island vanished in the mist.

---

BANG!

A single gunshot rang out, and a hole appeared in the forehead of the paper target. The faintly smoking gun was placed down on wooden ledge and the woman stood appreciating her work. Slowly she adjusted her glasses. Koyomi Mizuhara nodded her head as she looked across at the clean shot. Another good one. She slowly turned to the "girl" beside her with short black hair.

"What do you think of that Tomo?" she asked.

"Good shot Yomi!" said Tomo sticking up a thumb. "Now watch this!"

"Wait you idiot!" called out Yomi as Tomo suddenly lifted up a machine gun, and let out a full automatic blast, shredding apart her own target and spraying the back wall with bullets. She placed the gun down on her own ledge and turned to Yomi with a big grin on her face.

"What do you think of that then Yomi?" asked Tomo.

"Jackass. This is supposed to be about fine tuning your aiming skills and precision! Not blowing away paper with a machine gun!"

"Hey, this way is more fun" said Tomo shrugging.

"I swear, sometimes I wish I wasn't leader of this squad" sighed Yomi.

"Hey you chose me remember."

"No I didn't! You were assigned to my squad. It's just like school all over again! I can't escape you!" groaned Yomi.

"Ah, I like being around you too" said Tomo sarcastically. Yomi glared as Tomo embraced her in a tight hug, Yomi placing her palm in Tomo's face as she tried to push the girl away.

A sudden sound of a metal door opening caused both to freeze.

"Ladies, if you're quite finished I have a mission for you."

Tomo's eyebrow rose slightly. "A mission for _moi_?" she asked.

---

Yomi calmly marched along the corridor, Tomo practically skipping beside her. Just to the right of her was another member of their squad, Sakaki. The tall Sakaki looked uncomfortable as Tomo began to sing. Yomi merely rolled her eyes, which only caused Tomo to sing more boisterously. Sakaki slowly came to a stop as she noticed a smaller girl waiting by the door.

"Hi" she said, waving slightly.

"Hello Miss Sakaki" said Chiyo cheerfully, just as bright as ever despite being a seventeen year old. Five years younger then the rest of the team, she was a teenager surrounded by twenty two year olds. Her job was more to do with maintaining communications with the base then engaging in combat. On the last mission she spent much of it hunkered down, communicating coordinates back to the base. And Sakaki found the girl was still as adorable as ever. She wore her hair down now, though Tomo sometimes insisted on pigtails for old time's sake.

"So another mission then" said Sakaki quietly.

"Yeah! And did you hear! They've finally got a replacement for Kensuke."

Sakaki nodded as Chiyo spoke. That was good. Kensuke had dropped out after almost being shot in the head. They'd been a man down for a while; it'd be welcome to go into a mission at full strength.

"But who could it be?" asked Chiyo.

"Knowing my luck it'd probably be Kagura or some other knucklehead. Or perhaps Kimura, having decided to join up and help" groaned Yomi. "That wouldn't surprise me."

"As long as we don't have to worry about Miss Yukari becoming a helicopter pilot I'm ok" said Chiyo. "I still have nightmares about the car sometimes…"

"Well come on, we don't want to keep the General waiting" said Yomi.

"…Why not?" asked Tomo.

"Idiot" muttered Yomi under her breath as she pulled open the door, the bearded man looking up.

Quickly they took their seats. It was built for groups of squads with over thirty seats. Sakaki, Yomi and Chiyo sat at the front as Tomo slunk towards the back row and sat down, ignoring Yomi's aggravated comments. The man waited for a moment, but it became clear Tomo wouldn't move. He cleared his throat.

"First things first, you have a new member. Please make her feel welcome, she transferred here."

The door slowly opened, and a figure stepped inside. Chiyo smiled as Yomi adjusted her glasses.

"Hello" said Kaorin, waving to the group and blushing as she spotted Sakaki who gave her a faint look of recognition and nodded.

"Alright Kaorin!" yelled out Tomo. "Better then that jerk Kensuke!"

Kaorin blushed again and quietly moved to her seat. She chose the second row, just to the right of Sakaki- so she could see the screen and _another special thing. _The man nodded and dimmed the lights. A map appeared on screen as well as an image of a man.

"Three days ago Politician Anno was involved in a plane crash. We have detected this to be the island on which the crash landing occured. A search and rescue team from the Maritime Safety agency was dispatched. We have yet to hear from them in two days. We believe foul play may be at work so we are sending in a rescue team that can return its own form of _foul play_" said the man, nodding his head towards Yomi.

"So what's the search and rescue team?" asked Tomo, sticking a hand in the air. At the front Yomi slapped her head into her hands and groaned slightly. Sakaki and Chiyo looked across at her.

"Well…you" said the man, taken aback slightly. "We're going to be dropping the five of you in to retrieve the survivors. We received one message from the team before loosing contact. The pilot was dead, the aide and Mr Anno were both missing. Your primary task is to retrieve Anno. There are reports a terrorist cell has become aware of Anno's predicament. He must be found. Good luck ladies."

Tomo practically stood up and sprinted for the door as the other calmly stood up and filed out of the room.

"Yeah, special mission!" said Tomo holding her hands in the air.

_Please read and review_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Yomi sighed as she pulled on the trousers of her combat uniform. Who made these things have to be so tight huh? She would bet it had been designed by men. It was just lucky there weren't any men on the team, she couldn't put up with constant worrying about whether they were studying her butt…then again she wouldn't mind the attention. It would be welcome. She sighed once more and yanked them up.

"What's the matter Yomi?"

"Huh?" asked Yomi as Tomo stood wearing her own trousers, uniform not complete as she was currently wearing a small white shirt.

"You seem to be having a problem getting your trousers on. You haven't put on- GARGH!" yelled out Tomo as Yomi charged the girl, her glasses safe in the locker. Sakaki gracefully moved out of the way as the two wrestled on the floor. Chiyo stood watching, and opened her mouth to say something, before slowly closing it, shaking her head and turning away.

"I hear Yomi became the squad leader" said Kaorin, who given a choice of over twenty empty lockers had chosen the one next to Sakaki. "What's she like Miss Sakaki?"

"Fat-ARGH!" yelled out Tomo as Yomi gripped her in a headlock.

"Do you want to die?" hissed Yomi, her face close to Tomo's.

"Oh please, you always threaten me with death and you never do anything."

"Fine then, how about pinching?"

"Ow, ouch, jeez-ow cut it out!"

"Yeah, she's ok" said Sakaki slowly phasing out the fighting. It was relatively common; she'd grown use to ignoring it. She saw Kaorin focusing on her, but at the same time slowly moving her eyes to study the fight.

"I see they haven't changed much then" said Kaorin.

"That's not true!" said Tomo standing up and pushing Yomi's face into the ground. "My breasts have now grown to a much more impressive size! Just look!" boasted the girl.

"Yeah" said Kaorin blushing. "I guess you…must be very proud?"

"Damn straight!" said Tomo adopting a pose. "With these babies I've become more then a mere girl. I have become…a **woman!**"

"So, have you found a boyfriend yet Miss woman?" asked Yomi. Tomo paused and slowly turned, glaring across at Yomi who smiled faintly.

"So when will you adopt a professional manner miss Yomi" asked Chiyo, attempting to diffuse the situation.

"Oh I'm always professional during my missions. It's just her."

"Nah-uh" said Tomo.

"You're both idiots" said a figure standing by the doorway, hidden in the darkness.

"I recognize that voice! Show yourself fiend!" called out Tomo.

Yukari slowly stepped forwards, frowning slightly.

"Oh it's you" said Tomo.

"Hey! What's with the disdainful tone?"

"What are you doing here Miss Yukari?" asked Yomi, force of habit causing her to use "Miss".

"Guess."

"Er…"

"Guess!"

"Chef?" suggested Tomo. She slowly backed away as Yukari started to glare.

"No you idiot! I'll be your pilot for this mission!" said Yukari loudly. She paused and stood on her tiptoes, looking over Yomi. "Hey, why did Chiyo-chan just faint?"

---

Yomi peered at the handgun and then slid the clip of ammunition into it. Yukari stood watching the guns in awe as Tomo picked up a machine gun and waved it around in the air. Apparently there had been a shortage of suitable pilots, and so they had accepted people who showed a proficiency in maintaining survivability while in dangerous transit. Yukari had basically been practising for the past few years.

"So does this mission sound fun?" asked Yukari.

"I don't know, all I know is it's a special mission."

"Oh. I won't be there, I'm only here to pilot that" said Yukari, pointing out of the window towards the large black, expensive helicopter. Chiyo gulped loudly as thunder struck.

"Thu-thunderstorm?" she said aloud.

"Ah who cares about that? We won't be on the ground so it doesn't matter" said Yukari.

"Ah…" started Chiyo.

Across from the small group, Sakaki stood looking uneasily at the various weapons provided. All designed to kill, tested, pushed further and further to ensure efficient death. She frowned slightly as she picked up a rifle, as well as a semi-automatic pistol. Kaorin stood watching as Sakaki slid the pistol into a holster. She found it surprisingly erotic.

"Wow, we never had this much choice" said Kaorin, desperate to make conversation. "So many weapons."

"Yeah" said Sakaki. "So many ways to kill someone" she added regretfully.

"Well…perhaps it won't have to come to that!" said Kaorin.

"Perhaps" said Sakaki. "So what will you take?"

Kaorin grinned manically as she lifted a shotgun out of its plastic clips. She held it up to her and turned to Sakaki. "What do you think?"

"Erm…it suits you?" said Sakaki cautiously.

"You think so Sakaki-san?" said Kaorin, her eyes lighting up.

"…Sure?" said Sakaki.

Kaorin nodded and tightly held the gun against herself. Suddenly she realized she had the choice of a handgun too, or as many as she wanted. She slowly turned as Tomo promptly picked up an Uzi as well.

"Now that's just taking it too far" she muttered to herself.

"Is everybody ready?" asked Yukari. "You really shouldn't have left this to the last minute."

Slowly the team marched out of the room, fully equipped. Chiyo stood, blocking the exit, pushing back against Yukari as she tried to leave.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Yukari.

"P-please…no…"

---

Yukari laughed manically as the helicopter suddenly "jumped" up in the air.

"Winds a bit strong around here isn't it?" she said exuberantly. "I was a bit worried when we went upside down, but it was only for a few seconds."

"I-I should have made a will" said Chiyo, holding up shaking hands.

"Bah, we've been through worse with Yukari driving" said Tomo.

"I know. That's what worries me. The worst is yet to come" said Chiyo shivering.

"Well we're almost there, get ready to jump!" said Yukari over the intercom.

"But we don't have any parachutes" replied Yomi.

"Thrills are an essential way of life!"

"Just land the helicopter" growled Yomi. A sudden silence fell over the helicopter, Yukari mumbling something to herself as the helicopter began to descend through the mist.

The island came into view and slowly Tomo's mouth dropped. "Oh that place is massive! I can't be bothered to walk that much!"

"Tomo, a man's life is at stake here!"

"And so are my feet!"

Chiyo yanked the side door open and leapt out, Kaorin and Sakaki following her, eager to get away. Sakaki made sure to keep her head down- in fact she was so worried she found herself practically bent over at the waist.

"I don't think you need to go that far" said Chiyo.

"Yeah" said Kaorin dreamily as she stood behind the bent over Sakaki. "Go that far…"

Behind her Yomi and Tomo stepped off of the plane, the two stopping their bickering as soon as they stepped on the ground. The mission began now. Chiyo didn't want to tell them that to be truly professional they shouldn't have argued on the helicopter either.

"So where is this plane or whatever?" asked Tomo disinterestedly as the helicopter started to ascend.

"What happened to '_yeah special mission_'?" asked Kaorin.

"Eh" said Tomo shrugging. "So where to then?" asked Tomo.

Chiyo studied the screen of the small navigation device she held. "According to the signal the plane should be in that direction, an eight minute walk."

"Lets go there first, see if we can spot the rescue team…the first rescue team. Lets go" said Yomi.

The bloodied hand gripped hold of the binoculars and stared out as the helicopter slowly vanished. The person cried out and dropped the equipment, smearing blood across the fallen log as he pushed himself up.

_They shouldn't have come!_

* * *

Oooh Kaorin & shotgun X Sakaki. Now that's a pairing! Please R&R! 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"Are we there yet?" asked Tomo, a low odd sound being emitted as Yomi clenched and unclenched her leather glove covered hands. Chiyo glanced from to the other nervously. Tomo fell silent for a moment.

"Hey Yomi?" she then asked.

"Yes Tomo?" replied Yomi.

"Are we there yet?" asked Tomo, flicking a fly off of her hand.

Yomi didn't bother to reply, though Chiyo did notice her eye twitched ever so slightly. Evidently Tomo had decided they weren't in too much danger. However with the constant cracking of twigs, snarling, hushed breaths and the Halloween theme Chiyo was unable to fully relax.

Kaorin marched beside Sakaki gripping her shotgun tightly. Sakaki liked her with this! She said it matched her, oh wonderful heavens Miss Sakaki liked it! A step, a simple step from which to go on! _I'd blow away a million bad guys just for you Sakaki san! I'd kick the devil himself in the balls and rip out the hearts of those who dare insult you! Hmmm…perhaps the doctor was right. _

"So are we there-"

"Yes we are" said Chiyo cheerfully, interrupting Tomo. She wobbled as she climbed up onto tiptoes, trying to see over the long grass. "It should be over there" she said pointing. She yelled out as she fell to the floor, the gust from Tomo's sudden burst of speed knocking her over.

"Wow!" yelled out Tomo's voice. "Look at this crash! Wow I bet nothing survived that. Cool it's just like in a movie."

"This isn't a movie" said Yomi, appearing beside Tomo. She twitched slightly as she forced her hands down by her side. Idiot! Idiot! IDIOT!

"You need to calm down Yomi" said Tomo. "I suggest loosening up, but you don't want to get chubbier do you?"

"Mphff!" continued Tomo as her head dug into the ground, Yomi's foot resting on her head, slowly pushing down. "Pthhumpff!"

"Miss Yomi this isn't really a useful direction to be going in" said Chiyo, Yomi releasing her foot and Tomo spitting out mud.

"Well come on then, lets have a look inside this thing then" said Yomi, gripping hold of the crooked cabin door and pulling it open, grimacing as she heard the powerful screeching. She shuddered slightly. She hated that sound.

"They're dead Jim" she muttered to herself as she peered into the crushed cockpit, just about spotting a hand sticking out of the ragged metal mess. The sunlight glinted off of the metal watch. That reminded her. The evening was rapidly encroaching on them, soon it would be night. They'd have been here earlier if it wasn't for Yukari burning out the engine before they even got off the ground.

"Jeez, what is that smell?" asked Tomo loudly as she stepped into the crushed cabin.

"Dead people" said Yomi.

"Smells like mouldy bacon and bin bags" replied Tomo. "And maybe farts too."

"What a professional analysis of the situation" said Yomi.

"Why thank you" said Tomo. "I gave it a lot of thought."

"Good for you" said Yomi.

"Good for you" replied Tomo just as sternly.

Outside Chiyo tried to enter the plane, only to be forced back by a nigh on physical barrier of cold anger. She slowly turned and moved away.

"I say let the two of them work together" said Chiyo, Kaorin and Sakaki nodding. The trio sat waiting, chatting, watching the sun go down, and finally Chiyo started to eat a chocolate bar. Sakaki noticed the girl even did this politely, trying not to interrupt Sakaki and Kaorin by eating extremely quietly.

"So, do you think Mr Anno is alive?" asked Kaorin.

"He might be" said Sakaki quietly. She said little more, and looked around awkwardly as the group fell into silence. Why did she find it so hard to talk? Everyone else she knew could do it easily. She knew how it was supposed to work, what she was supposed to do. On her own she even had daydreams imagining the funny and wild things she could say, enjoying it as everyone laughed with her at something **she **said. Being the one who made the experience better for the first time. But every time without fail she simply wouldn't know what to say, or how to hold up a conversation. Every time she felt a little worse in herself.

"I think he probably is" said Chiyo, "But we must try to find him before the possible terrorists get to him."

"Terrorists…always the terrorists" said Kaorin.

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know actually, I'm making it up as I go along" replied Kaorin. "And something about this island gives me the creeps."

Sakaki slowly looked upwards as grey clouds went over head, the setting red sun just about penetrating them lazily, shadows stretching out over the ground. A sudden strange feeling passed over her. She didn't really like this place either. There was something odd. A creepy something- it had an odd 4Chan like vibe to it. She thought something may have happened here…apart from the crash and the arrival of a military team.

"Miss Sakaki?" asked Kaorin.

"It's nothing, just a strange feeling" said Sakaki. She let out a faint smile, as though to reassure Kaorin.

_She smiled at me! It must be true love!_

The three heads turned as Tomo appeared, holding her hands up in the air as though in triumph.

"So?" asked Kaorin.

"This plane crash landed!" exclaimed Tomo proudly. Despite attempting to resist it, Chiyo slapped her head down into her hands. Tomo yelled as she was shoved out of the way by Yomi who stepped out.

"The pilot is dead. Apart from that there's no one else present in the plane. The Politician and his aide are both missing. There are no signs of the original rescue team. If something happened to them, it was unlikely that it happened here" said Yomi.

"So now what?" asked Tomo, pushing herself up off the ground and _accidentally _treading on Yomi's toes in the process.

Yomi held in the insults as she rubbed her toes with her other foot. She slowly turned and pointed. "We now follow the tracks" said the squad leader. "A collection of footprints leading away from the plane. Given this is a deserted island there shouldn't be many small crowds of people here."

"Right Yomi!" said Chiyo.

"I'm ready" said Sakaki, Kaorin waving her shotgun in the air.

"Oh more walking? But it's getting dark and cold and I stepped in a puddle and my feet are wet" moaned Tomo.

"We'll keep going for now and try to find some shelter later" said Yomi.

"And then sleep?" asked Tomo, her eyes lighting up.

"Perhaps."

"Excellent" said Tomo standing up. Together the five began to walk away from the wreck.

---

"Ha ha ha I see some fools have landed on this island. Soon they will discover the secrets that this island possesses" said the man hidden in the shadows.

"Hmm. Why do we have so many cameras?"

"I procrastinate. Putting up cameras is what I do instead of work."

"Right…What are you going to do now sir?" asked the technician.

"I'm going to adopt the Gendo pose" said the man as he sat down and pulled on a pair of white gloves.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

"Look Yomi, there's a building lets sleep!" said Tomo excitedly.

"But Tomo…" started Yomi.

"Look, it's already night" said Tomo pointing, the sun still setting.

"Fine, lets go investigate it" said Yomi, who had been planning on doing so anyway. Thanks to that idiot Tomo now it looked like she was doing it for all the wrong reasons. "But that's all we are doing. No sleeping until I say so."

"I can't control my body Yomi, if I fall asleep I'll fall asleep" said Tomo.

"Then I guess we'll have to leave me behind then" said Yomi.

"You wouldn't do that would you?" asked Tomo worriedly. She turned to Chiyo. "Promise me you won't let them leave without me Chiyo-chan" she said.

"O-of course Tomo, I won't let them" said Chiyo. Tomo nodded her head and thanked the younger member of the team.

Kaorin shifted her grip on the shotgun as the small group trekked through the long grass, Yomi leading the team as Chiyo and Sakaki kept a look out for any potential enemies (or as Tomo liked to call them "bastards"). Kaorin didn't notice the nervous look on Sakaki's face. The tall girl didn't really like violence. Compulsory recruitment had led to her joining, wanting to make sure her friends were ok caused her to stay. At this moment in time she believed her confirmed kill count stood somewhere in the region of zero to none at all. That was a far cry from Tomo's bullet to butt/knee to crotch count.

"Sleep, sleep, sleep" said Tomo as they marched towards the bunker.

"I don't think I'd want to sleep in there" said Chiyo.

"Why? Are you afraid?" asked Tomo. "Still scared?"

"No, it would probably be unhygienic. Look at the state of the outside" said Chiyo. "Besides I'm a trained soldier who has taken part in battles. Why would I be scared of that?" asked Chiyo, now pouting.

"Please, I know you're still scared of the dark" said Tomo.

"I'm not scared of the dark!" said Chiyo. "I'm just scared of what the dark may hide! Like murderers and rapists…"

"And the bogeyman" said Tomo shrugging. "Poor little Chiyo."

"Don't forget I'm the one who has to make sure the others wait for you if you sleep" said Chiyo, looking at Tomo evilly.

"I'll be good."

"Ok, stay here and be quiet" said Yomi, focusing strongly on Tomo as they reached the bunker perimeter. "Kaorin, you come with me. That shotgun will be useful for close encounters. Sakaki, Tomo stay here with Chiyo and help her keep a lookout. Come on Kaorin."

"Right" said Kaorin, nodding her head. She paused momentarily, looking at Sakaki. What if something went wrong and this was the last time she'd ever see…no she couldn't think like that. It would take an army to stop Kaorin see Sakaki's face again.

She just hoped there wasn't an actual army waiting for her. That would probably be a dampener.

Slowly the two marched through the long grass, crouched down and avoiding the clean cut pathway just in case people waited in the bunker. They soon reached the concrete structure, a thick steel door the only entrance from this side. Kaorin paused and then pointed.

"Look, there's thick plant growth on the walls, but not by the door. It must have been disturbed- and recently."

Yomi nodded in silent agreement. "Stay here, I'm going to go and check on it."

"How?" asked Kaorin.

Yomi shrugged. "Peek through the window?"

She slowly moved forwards, having possessed a gift at remaining silent, developed in tandem with Tomo's ability to…annoy Yomi. Kaorin fidgeted as she remained crouched down, knees beginning to hurt. She hoped no one was in the bunker.

Yomi ducked down as she suddenly spotted the narrow slit that she would class as the buildings "window". No light shone from it and she crept along the wall before stopping and slowly looking through into the building. She couldn't see much in the darkness, it didn't appear as though anyone was inside. She slowly reached down and picked up a rock and chucked it inside, the rock clanging against the opposite wall. She ducked down but nothing more happened.

Finally she pulled out her walkie-talkie and carefully turned it on.

"This is Yomi."

"Hello Miss Yomi" said Chiyo quietly and politely. "What do you need?"

"Can you and the others move up please" said Yomi. She always felt compelled to use polite speech rather then professional sounding speech with Chiyo. "We're going exploring."

"Right Miss Yomi" said Chiyo.

Yomi moved back to Kaorin who sat waiting as the others moved forwards.

"So what's it like?" asked Kaorin.

"Dark. I don't think anyone is in there" replied Yomi. "We're going to check it out."

"Oh. Can I stand up now?" asked Kaorin grimacing.

"Ok then." Yomi made a face as Kaorin's knees made a faint crack as she stood up.

"Ow, that hurt" said Kaorin, moving forward with a slightly odd walk. She smiled though as Sakaki arrived. She also found it odd that while on a military mission on a strange island all she could think about was the girl. Perhaps she really was becoming obsessed. No, no the doctor was definitely wrong. This was perfectly healthy. And if it wasn't, well she guessed she didn't really want to be sane.

"So what's the situation then Yomi?" asked Tomo.

"You seem surprisingly focused" said Yomi. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. But the sooner we take care of this, the sooner we sleep."

"Idiot, this isn't about sleep."

"Perhaps not for you, but I think I speak for the rest of us…"

"No" said Chiyo

"Nope" said Kaorin. Sakaki shook her head slightly but said nothing.

"Bah! Traitors!" said Tomo.

"Come on, let's get going" said Yomi, marching towards the bunker, the others behind her.

They soon reached the building and filed out along the wall. Yomi slowly gripped the door and licked her lips before yanking it open, a screech breaking the silence. Her heart was beating fast as she sat waiting, hidden behind the door, but no response came. She nodded to the others and stepped inside.

It was much darker inside then out. She could see vague outlines and it seemed the bunker had some sort of level below the floor she stood on, as the faint reflections off of the floor just stopped, replaced by pitch black. Tomo followed Yomi and paused as Yomi fiddled around trying to get her torch.

"What's the matter, can't figure out how to use the torch?" asked Tomo.

"I'm fine" growled Yomi.

"Ew" said Tomo in the darkness.

"What is it now?" asked Yomi, holding up her arms as Tomo switched on her own torch and shone it in the girls eyes.

"Something wet fell on me." Tomo turned the torch on herself and poked herself with a finger, holding it up to the torch. "Hey, I think it's blood. Gross."

Yomi looked at it- definitely blood. Finally she pulled out her own torch and switched it on, turning to face the main part of the bunker. Slowly the contents came into view.

Now she knew why there hadn't been a response.

"Oh my" said Yomi aloud.

* * *

Authors note: When I wrote the first chapter I intended this to be a serious story. Now it's more humour based and I may break the laws of science later by possibly adding anime laws of physics. 

Oh and in a move sure to please AR, my avatar is now that of Kaorin.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Sakaki forcibly stopped Chiyo from entering the bunker as Yomi frowned, attempting to hide the grimace waiting within her. Blood was spilled across the floor. The torch swung along the floor, revealing a ladder which led down to a lower level. A man was sprawled beside it, his intestines strewn across the floor having been ripped out. Odd marks, almost like large footprints could be seen in the blood, as well as on the clean parts of the floor. However they certainly didn't seem like shoe prints nor bare footprints.

"Hey look, someone's giving us a hand" said Tomo, picking a disembodied hand up off of a table and holding it up in the air.

"Put that down!" said Yomi.

"Just making light of the situation" said Tomo, chucking the hand into a nearby bin. "Cool, I made it."

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" asked Yomi.

"Are you kidding?" asked Tomo. "I'm wide awake now."

"Why?"

"Because this is now a proper adventure" said Tomo. "And Tomo Takino doesn't give up until the problem is solved, the bad guys are beaten and I look better then Sakaki."

"Have you matured at all in the past few years?" grumbled Yomi. Tomo pointed to her chest and grinned slyly, Yomi slowly turning away and letting out a few choice observations. Tomo shrugged slightly and then poked one of the more complete dead guys with her foot.

"I don't think he's going to make it Yomi!" called out Tomo.

"I'm just ignoring you from now on" replied Yomi.

"Fine by me!" yelled back Tomo.

"Please Miss Sakaki, can you tell me what is happening?" asked Chiyo. She may have been older then her school days, but Sakaki was still taller then her (and surprisingly strong despite her passive nature). "What is in there?"

"Blood" said Sakaki. "Lot's of blood."

Chiyo stopped squirming to try and get inside. "I'm good out here" she said, suddenly changing her opinion dramatically and sitting down beside the outside wall. "So how bad is it in there?" asked Chiyo.

"Pretty bad" said Sakaki, trying to keep her voice emotionless, cool and collected. "We are the only one's who are still alive in here."

Kaorin carefully moved through the bunker, stretching out her legs as she stepped over the puddles of blood. She lent down next to one of the intact bodies, not looking at the purple bulging face. She spotted an insignia and ripped it away from the sleeve, the tearing sound catching Yomi's attention.

"What is it Kaorin?" asked Yomi.

Kaorin held up the insignia and shone her torch on it. "Look it's the mark of the Koshi terrorist brigade."

"It is" said Yomi, as Kaorin handed it to her.

"So what does that mean?" asked Tomo, appearing behind Yomi, a finger in her mouth as she paused, thinking about the discussion.

"I think this means that we are looking at the remains of the terrorist cell we were told to look out for" said Yomi.

"Excellent" said Tomo sticking up a thumb.

"What do you mean by that?" asked an incredulous Yomi.

"Well our job has just been made a lot easier. And also all of these dead people are bad guys so we don't have to worry about feeling bad about them being dead since we probably would have to have shot them anyway!" said Tomo cheerfully. "It's win-win!"

"Tomo, these were real people" said Yomi.

"B-but they were the bad guys" said Tomo in an upset tone as she bowed under Yomi's fierce stare. "B-bad guys!"

"There there" said Kaorin, "you can't help being an idiot."

"It's not my…wait what?"

"So, this is the terrorist group?" said Kaorin turning away from Tomo who stood looking puzzled. "But then, what did this to them?"

"I don't know" said Yomi, looking around at the carnage. "But I can't shake the feeling this wasn't done by people."

"Yeah I know what you mean" replied Kaorin. "It seems like an animal attack." She kicked forward a rifle, the metal twisted and bent. "But what type of animal could do this type of damage?"

"An animal I don't feel like meeting" replied Yomi.

"Miss Yomi!" called out Chiyo from outside.

"Yes? What is it?" replied Yomi.

"HQ have gotten in contact with us. They're requesting to be updated on the situation. What should I say?" asked Chiyo.

"Tell them to hold on, I'm just coming" replied Yomi. "Kaorin, Tomo investigate down there" she said pointing to the ladder. "But be careful. And Tomo, don't touch anything you don't need to."

"I understand!" said Tomo. "Super investigator Tomo is on the job" continued the girl, running to the ladder and nearly slipping in the blood.

"Super investigator Tomo is an idiot" said Yomi stepping out of the bunker. She stepped across to Chiyo who politely held up the receiver, Yomi taking hold of it and thanking Chiyo.

"This is Mizuhara."

"What is the current situation Mizuhara? Has the target been acquired?"

"Not yet. He was not present at the crash site, we believe we are following his tracks. We have a feeling we don't need to worry about a terrorist threat" said Yomi.

"Why?"

"Just an educated guess" said Yomi, peering back to the bloodbath bunker. She didn't feel like talking much. They were out in the open, she had little to inform them of, and she felt sometimes the man talked down to her. And he was often very, very boring. "It's getting dark, I think it'd be best to continue exploring before it's pitch black. We'll update you on the situation later."

"Good luck Mizuhara, and move fast."

"I will sir."

She slowly handed the device back to Chiyo who smiled as she placed it back in the bag. She slowly looked up at Yomi and paused for a moment, pondering over whether it would be rude or not to ask what had been said. She didn't want to be seen as intruding into something private.

"Yo Yomi, what did the dork want?!" called out Tomo from inside the bunker. Quietly Chiyo breathed a sigh of relief. That was one dilemma out of the way now. _Phew. _

"Just wanted to know what the situation was" replied Yomi. "And he isn't a dork, he is our commanding officer."

"Bah" said Tomo waving her hands dismissively despite the fact a reinforced wall stood between her and Yomi, "He doesn't hear me, so I can say what I like. And he looks like a dork."

"You know, I heard rumours that some of the higher ups made use of the _person not being there _rule with regards to you Tomo" said Kaorin cheerfully.

"What?" asked Tomo, turning to face Kaorin.

Kaorin shrunk back. She was alone with Tomo in the bunker, it would take time for the others to arrive. She'd have to choose her words carefully.

"Well, some people weren't kind with their words" said Kaorin.

"I knew it" said Tomo pointing at Kaorin. "They don't appreciate me and bring me down by relying on facts and my prior actions!"

"Huh?"

"I'll show them! They're always putting me down, never had any faith in me!" said Tomo.

"Actually they said you're a pretty good soldier, but missing a few bolts up there" said Kaorin.

"My roofing was always in perfect condition, I paid a lot of money for my flat."

"Yeah, ok then Tomo" said Kaorin, as Yomi re-entered the bunker. She walked up to the two, carefully avoiding the blood. Kaorin looked confused, a look Yomi knew too well- the result of what happened when you tried to comprehend Tomo on a non crazy level of thought.

"Did you get anywhere with the exploration?" asked Yomi. Tomo was a very large inhibitor of getting anything productive done.

"Yeah we did" said Tomo. "It's just a small lower level, nothing important apart from a dead guy. His leg is at an angle I had never thought I'd see a leg at."

"I see" said Yomi.

"It was a bit of an anticlimax to me" said Tomo. "I was expecting something more exciting down there. Bah, nothing ever lives up to expectations."

"So we have a dead terrorist team and a missing politician and rescue team" mused Yomi to herself. "There's definitely something weird going on here."

"I'm not going to disagree with you on that" remarked Kaorin.

Yomi slowly took off her glasses and cleaned them as she stood, deep in thought. What to do next? There was a whole island to possibly explore to find the man. This was still just as difficult as when they started.

"Miss Yomi!" called Chiyo.

"Yes?"

"We've just found someone, come quick!"

_Authors note: As you may have noticed the title has changed. I've had a complete change of heart with regards to where this story is going. Lets just say I doubt you'll see the eventual conclusion coming. _


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Yomi slowly leant down, the person moving back, holding his hands up to protect his face. Yomi slowly moved forwards, holding up her hands and trying to appear non threatening. She was certain of it- this man, in his wrinkled and mud covered suit was definitely Politician Anno.

"Mr Anno, we're here to help" said Yomi kindly, "We're a rescue-"

"Back! Stay back, don't come near me!" called Anno, "Stay away from me!"

"Listen here!" said Tomo, gripping Anno around the shirt and lifting the man up onto his feet. "We've been sent out here to find you and that's what we are going to do! I had to miss my favourite TV program to come down here and I'm missing out on sleep."

"W-what!?" said Anno. "Rescue?"

"Yeah! And we're getting out of here now, if we hurry I'll be able to get back in time to see an early morning repeat. Sure it'll be edited but at least I'll know what is going on" said Tomo.

"Er Tomo, there are more important things in play here then television" whispered Yomi.

"Video games?" suggested Tomo.

"Come on Mr Anno, come with us we're getting out of here."

"Konta! They killed Konta!"

"Who's Konta?" said Tomo aloud.

"Mr Anno's personal assistant" said Chiyo, not directly staring at the trembling man. The sight wasn't nice. Yomi whispered something to her, and Chiyo handed the leader a small device.

"Yukari, you hear me?" asked Yomi speaking into it.

"_Yeah" BURP, "I hear you."_

"Are you drinking?" asked Yomi.

"_Just fizzy drinks for now. What do you need?"_

"We've found Anno and need to be retrieved. How soon do you think you can get out to here Yukari?"

"_Hehe I have ways of getting there quickly."_

"Just make sure the helicopter arrives in one piece. I'll turn on the tracker so you can find us. Please do actually try to find us."

"_I will. Oh and someone might be tagging along."_

"Fine. See you soon Yukari." Yomi groaned. Great, someone else decided to butt into their mission.

"What's the matter Miss Yomi?" asked Chiyo, standing beside Yomi as the sun descended below the green hills that stood in front of them. A few rays of red pierced upwards, leaving odd light red clouds. Across from them Anno sat hiding behind Sakaki, trying not to be seen by Tomo.

Yomi paused. "You know Chiyo, you don't have to call me Miss anymore, just call me Yomi if you want to."

"I like calling you Miss Yomi."

Yomi smiled and looked towards the hills. "Beautiful isn't it? Nothing is wrong Chiyo, I'm just being myself again. The helicopter ought to be here in about half an hour."

"That's good" said Chiyo, "I don't really like this place."

"Yeah. I'm just annoyed because apparently someone decided to come along for the ride. I just don't like people poking their heads into other people's business."

"I guess so Miss Yomi. Depends on how subtle they are."

"So what now then?" asked Kaorin. Behind her Sakaki looked awkward and was slowly handing Anno a chocolate bar. The man paused for a moment and then evidently decided his hunger was greater then his self appearance as he began chomping down hungrily on the bar, thanking Sakaki who nodded and then didn't quite know where to look.

"We're moving out. There isn't a place here to safely land the helicopter." Yomi paused and reached into one of the deeper pockets of her trousers, pulling out a large metallic sphere. She pressed a button built into the device and a small red light started to flash.

"Oooh, what's that?" asked Tomo, drawn to flashing lights.

"Did you even bother listening to the briefing?" asked Yomi.

"Parts of it."

"This device allows Yukari to track where we are, and so locate us and land the helicopter to pick us up."

"But wouldn't you want to be as far from the landing point as possible?" asked Kaorin, "Especially with Yukari involved."

Tomo and Sakaki nodded their heads in agreement. Yomi threw the device up in the air, caught it, and then placed it back in the pocket.

"Fortunately I have a plan. Find a large flat field, place this device in the middle and then run and hide until the helicopter is safely on the ground. And I'll double check the safety from a suitable distance."

"Good plan" said Tomo and Chiyo in unison.

"I-It's just lucky I don't like this island" said Chiyo, "Or else I don't think I'd be able to get back on that helicopter." The youngest member had started shaking, despite it not being very cold.

"And remember, we don't tell Yukari about this conversation, or she might deliberately crash to teach us a lesson" said Yomi, "Or get so irate she ends up crashing. Whatever happens just don't tell her."

The group nodded in unison, even Sakaki making an outward acknowledgement. She slowly moved out of the way as Yomi approached Anno. The man tucked the empty bar into his pocket, being a staunch opponent of litter. He looked up as the bespectacled girl stopped in front of him.

"We're leaving now. Our transport will be here soon and we'll be getting out of here" said Yomi. The man nodded faintly. "Are you feeling better now?"

"I'm more composed now if that's what you mean" said Anno standing up and dusting himself down. "I'm much better then I was then. Sorry about the slightly, er, crazy response" said Anno, bowing towards Tomo.

"But what caused you to be like that Mr Anno, if you don't mind the question?" asked Chiyo. Anno turned and looked at the girl, pausing before smiling faintly. However it soon drained from his face as he began to speak.

"The men in there- they took me. They got into a fight with the rescue team, the rescue team were killed. The terrorists warned them to stop, but everyone got caught up. Konta and I were taken prisoner and moved to this bunker. They seemed to be waiting for someone."

"So what about the bloodbath?" asked Yomi, as Tomo turned and looked towards the bunker.

"Something came" said Anno. "Something horrible. They tore through the team. They attacked in the day, just came through the door. Those things didn't seem to have fear. All I can remember is they were bulky and had sharp teeth. The sun was behind them…I heard the gunshots. Konta was ripped in half. I managed to hide out here in the grass as the others fell back to the bunker. All I could hear were screams, gunfire and roaring. They left, I couldn't believe they hadn't got me. I think they were only interested in blindly killing, and had no comprehension of how many of us where there in the first place."

"Yeah" said Tomo, slightly confused.

"So what, killing machines?" asked Kaorin.

"A bit like that" said Anno, joining Chiyo in shivering, though for a different reason. "They vanished as quickly as they appeared. They killed, ate some of the men and then merely left."

Kaorin tried to subtly check her shotgun as Tomo pulled out both the Uzi and checked on the machine gun slung on her back. Yomi nodded and then turned to the others.

"We're moving out of this place. Chances are these things might come back to get the rest of their meal. We're going to find a safe landing area and then we are leaving."

"Can't disagree with that" said Kaorin as she quickly checked the box of shotgun shells she had stored in her backpack. "You ok Sakaki?" she asked, having become aware of how long it had been since she had said anything to the girl.

"I'm ok" said Sakaki quietly. "I just want to leave this place now."

"Can't disagree with that either" said Kaorin. "Are you sure you're feeling ok?" asked Kaorin as she spotted the look of unease on Sakaki's face.

That look had only appeared due to the fact Sakaki now found herself holding her rifle. She hated subjecting herself to possibly having to harm another person- but she'd prefer to know her friends were dependant upon her rather then relying on a stranger with no interest in the girls. By being here she could do everything in her power to make sure everyone lived through each mission.

She was thankful for that.

"Hey Sakaki, stop dreaming" said Tomo, "We're going now."

"Oh ok."

At a slightly faster walking pace the team left the bunker. Sakaki seemed oblivious of the fact that both Kaorin and Anno seemed to stay very close to her. None noticed as the camera slowly moved and focused on them. A faint buzzing sound was made as it zoomed in on the team, the controller trying to see just what weaponry the team possessed.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Slowly the man marched behind the technician, a gloved hand in a tight fist as he watched the security footage. Finally he leant forward, gripping the metal railing with one hand as he pointed to the screen.

"Who the hell do these people think they are, coming to my island!" he exclaimed.

"Technically sir this island is considered either abandoned or deserted" said one of the technicians.

"I don't care about that! This is my island now!" said the man. He paused for a moment. "I want them captured, I want them imprisoned, and if I still feel angry later, I might want them dead!"

"Ahem, sir" said Davids, a lowly security guard. The man was the only non Japanese member of the team, his accent suggested Europe. He was also surprisingly pale. "Perhaps it would be a good idea to leave them? After all, they appear to be planning on leaving soon."

"Nonsense" said the man, with a wide sweeping arm action. "This is an invasion and I will not stand for it! And I won't be talked to like that by a mere guard! Understand me?!"

"Of course…_Lord _Inoue" said Davids, giving a quick bow and then moving away. "Idiot, you have no idea what you're going to do" he muttered to himself.

He slowly slunk back out of the way as a team marched towards the exit. Those poor idiotic girls were heading right towards them, they were making the job easier. Inoue would probably use this as a sign of how great he was. Davids scowled. The man was a fool. He had given himself the title of Lord, and made his 'subjects' call him Lord. Davids was only here for the money, and to wait until the time came…

"Davids, please stop daydreaming on my payroll" muttered Inoue.

"Yeah ok" said Davids, leaving the room.

---

"Well, there goes the sun" said Yomi, the final lingering light having vanished, the sky now a dark pitch black. No stars broke the darkness this night, and they couldn't see the moon. "That's just great."

"I know what you mean" whispered Kaorin. "Yukari is going to have to try and control that helicopter in the dark." The helicopter was expected to arrive anytime soon and they hadn't found a good landing location yet.

"Actually I was thinking more about how the dark can hide things. And given the things that might be present on this island…"

"See Tomo" said Chiyo, gripping Tomo's sleeve. "Yomi's thinking about what the dark could hide as well." Chiyo stood waiting for a response, expecting an acknowledgment from Tomo.

"Yeah, well at least Yomi isn't scared of the dark." Tomo continued walking as Chiyo paused momentarily, with a super pout on her face.

"Don't worry about it" said Sakaki, who had been at the back of the group. _Sometimes the dark can be scary. _

"Do you like the dark Miss Sakaki?" asked Chiyo.

"Sometimes. But it can be spooky." Sakaki paused. "Some-"

BANG!

Sakaki looked on in shock, Kaorin standing in front of her holding the shotgun which she had just fired. Slowly Sakaki and Chiyo turned to face what Kaorin was looking at. The light from their torches fell on a man holding up a knife. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and then he fell to the floor. Kaorin clenched her fist in celebration. No one threatens her Sakaki!

"Ah!" said Chiyo backing away, Sakaki merely wondering how close she might have been to being killed.

"Crap, looks like we have something else to worry about now" muttered Yomi. "What is it?!" she asked angrily as Tomo tapped on her shoulder.

Tomo slowly slunk back, looking down at the ground slightly. "I was just going to point out there's a building over there, I can see searchlights or something like that." Yomi followed the direction of Tomo's fingers and could see circles of light.

"Oh, good job Tomo" said Yomi, the girl's head rising slightly.

"Yeah, well super Tomo is always on the watch for dangerous thingies!" said Tomo, her crisis of confidence already over. Yomi signalled to the others and they crouched down in the long grass, Sakaki making sure to stay close to Chiyo and Anno who had huddled together.

"I think there's another force out here" said Yomi quietly. "That man carries an insignia different to that of the terrorists. I think the base of operations is over there" she said pointing.

"Yeah, and I was the one who spotted it" added Tomo.

"We're going to fan out and investigate. It seems these people know we are here, so they might hinder our chances of escape."

"What are you getting at Miss Yomi?" asked Chiyo.

"I'm saying we might have to neutralize this threat" said Yomi, Tomo and Kaorin nodding grimly. Looks of unease on Chiyo and Sakaki's faces were hidden by the darkness.

"Can you hear something?" asked Kaorin.

"Hey look!" said Tomo, as the group started to move towards the concealed building.

---

"Ha ha girl, you're right in my sights" said the man laughing, his gloved finger tightening on the trigger. "Prepare to say goodbye." Through the sight he tracked Tomo as the group spread out in silence, trying to find the entrance to the facility…

He scowled greatly as he spotted the guards stepping towards the team. Those jackasses! This was supposed to be his moment! Slowly he placed his rifle down on the ground and lit up a cigarette. He switched to another song on his mp3 player, turning up the volume. As he turned the cigarette fell from his mouth as he saw the helicopter hovering behind him.

"You ok back there?" asked Yukari as she watched the man run away.

"Get it together, get it together, get it…" came the reply.

"Yep, she's fine…for her" muttered Yukari.

---

Yomi paused and watched the helicopter pass over one of the smaller buildings. Yukari certainly didn't like taking her time. Yomi patted the tracking device, they couldn't use that just yet. However the roar of the helicopter at a low level allowed the guard to sneak up to Yomi. Holding up a knife he grinned before the side of his head exploded, splattering across the wall.

"Nice shot" said Yukari, turning to the girl in the back of the helicopter holding a high powered rifle. She suddenly noticed the girl's eyes were in fact shut. Slowly they opened and Yukari's former student looked across at her.

"Wow Osaka, are you so good you don't even have to look?"

"I just don't like watching it. I aim, and then hope they don't move" replied Osaka, smiling faintly.

"Bu-but Yomi was right next to him, you could have got her."

"Wha-oh yeah. Whoops." Osaka paused. "I guess I should keep my eyes open when sniping."

"Probably a good idea- oh shit" said Yukari as she spotted the rocket heading towards her vehicle.

---

Yomi looked up as part of the helicopter burst into flames, the vehicle juddering as it fell to the ground. She closed her eyes as it crashed, but didn't hear an explosion. As Tomo joined her she heard a loud crashing sound.

"Bastards! Look what you did to my helicopter, they'll blame me for this!"

Yomi looked up and watched as Yukari ran out of the downed helicopter, firing a machine gun wildly as another person ran out beside her. Yukari appeared to have ripped the tracking device out of the helicopter as she used it to find Yomi, crouching down beside her.

"Well I'm here…the helicopter is over there" said Yukari pointing.

"Yeah I saw-"

"Osaka!" exclaimed Tomo. "It's you!" she continued reaching out and gripping the girl in a hug, Osaka returning the hug while awkwardly trying to position the rifle she hadn't bothered to put down.

"So who are these bastards then?" asked Yukari, before turning away from Yomi and grinning wildly as she sprayed an area with bullets.

"We don't quite know" said Yomi.

"But it's ok to kill them right?" asked Yukari, pausing. "They're the enemy aren't they?"

"Yeah!" said Tomo.

"Good enough for me" said Yukari, sliding another clip into her weapon and opening fire again.

Tomo moved forwards as Kaorin and the others joined them.

"Ha, I think we're winning!" exclaimed Tomo boisterously.

"Drop your weapons, you are surrounded" said the masked guard, others joining him, pointing their guns towards the small group.

"Crap" muttered Yukari, echoing Yomi's thought's in a more PG-13 manner.

_Author's note: Possibly odd plot twist coming up in the next chapter. Also this is halfway between seriousness and humour based. Dependant upon my sanity parts may be slightly "crazy". Seeing as you are reading an Azumanga Daioh fanfiction this probably doesn't mean anything to you (pigtails with the power of flight)_

_R.O.TR_


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

"Keep moving" growled the guard, jabbing Kaorin in the back with his rifle. She muttered something but continued walking, looking down at Sakaki's hand. She felt a strong urge to hold it, let Sakaki know how she felt and that it would be ok. She wondered why even now that was what she was thinking about.

"Shit, open fire God damn it!" yelled one of the guards.

Yomi turned to see a bulging object with cruel misaligned fangs about to smash through the window. She backed away, and the creature continued to try and enter the room even as bullets ripped it apart. Finally it fell away, one of the guards cursing loudly.

"Damn it I hate these bloody things" said one of the guards. "I know they're part of what caused him to plan this, but I don't know why we can't just wipe them out."

"You're free to go and try, but don't expect much help."

"Ah shut up and get those people moving, Inoue wants to see them."

"Come on then, keep moving girls" said another of the guards. Kaorin had to admit, except for the recent jab these people had been surprisingly kind to them, now they had been caught. They'd even left Chiyo's hands unbound- on the unspoken agreement that if she tried anything she would die in a matter of seconds.

After the brief flurry of excitement and gunfire silence returned, broking only by clicking footprints against a polished floor. Soon they reached a stairwell, and after a reminder not to do anything stupid, they began to descend the stairs. Tomo appeared to be resisting the urge to sprint down the stairs yelling. They continued, Yukari looking ready to complain about the number of stairs involved. Yomi and Kaorin were both frowning, Sakaki with a neutral expression, trying to reassure Chiyo who was currently doing much better then the fully grown Anno beside her.

The cramped stairway was replaced by a vast open room stretching out deep beneath the ground, the team having gone underground. Numerous pieces of equipment could be seen throughout the room, including an area filled with live feeds from security cameras.

Yomi also noticed that some of the equipment seemed noticeably older then others. Paint was flaking and the colours were fading from some of the older equipment, with clean modern computers next to them. The centre of the room had a large stage, several thick cables leading towards a thick metal construct, a number of computers and technology Yomi didn't recognize close by.

"What the hell is going on in this place" muttered Yomi to herself.

"I bet that thing is powerful enough to play Crysis on the medium graphic settings" said Tomo.

"Shut up Tomo."

"Yeah, yeah I'm moving over there jackass" muttered Yukari as the team was forced towards a wall.

Yomi turned as a faint flash of colour caught her attention. In disbelief she watched as a man _actually wearing a cape_ walked towards them with a triumphant grin on his face. He stopped in front of the small group, studying them intently.

"So, you thought you try and stop my plan just before I succeeded huh?" he asked. "Try and stop me, the powerful Lord Inoue?"

"Actually we had no idea you were here" replied Tomo grinning.

"Hmm I see…but given time I am sure you would have discovered my deviously evil plan and tried to stop me" said the man.

"Well maybe."

The man dismissed the comment with a wave of his hand and stepped down a bit, passing Sakaki. He paused looking at the man standing close to Kaorin. In his ruined suit Anno looked forwards.

"Ah Politician Anno, I was surprised to see you land on my island." Without warning Inoue pulled out a handgun and fired, blowing away the back of Anno's head. "In my new world there will be no need for people like you."

"Jeez, warn us before you do something like that" said Yukari, rubbing an ear.

Inoue laughed. "I like all of you. I'll allow you to watch my transformation!" he declared, clenching his fist dramatically.

"Transformation?" asked Tomo, seemingly unable to remain quietly.

"I'm glad you asked" said Inoue smiling. Yomi groaned internally. Now there'd be a boring monologue.

"You find yourself within an abandoned military research facility, which bears the blood of some of its previous owners. They sought to create a powerful biological weapon, something that would strike fear into the hearts of enemies. They created something, that is for sure. A pure killing machine, as you experienced on your way down here. No fear, no sense of pain just an urge to kill and eat."

Tomo nudged Yomi and rolled her eyes.

"However that isn't what interested me. No, no something far greater then that. By using this technology the scientists had been able to create…New Life!"

Yomi actually groaned this time, the man was getting even more dramatic. He turned and pointed to the stage.

"I have managed to alter this device, and tonight I will achieve the dream of many men- and become immortal."

Behind Yomi Tomo actually spluttered and started choking. The man had stopped sounding like a campy play performer. He seemed deadly serious. Slowly he turned away.

"Davids, look after the prisoners and keep them out of the way. I'm about to change history forever."

"Yes Lord Inoue" said Davids as the man marched towards the stage. Chiyo kept her head low as the machines fired up, a powerful low humming filling the room.

Davids stuck out an arm and made the others move back. He slowly stepped back as well, moving close to the wall.

"It's best to stay as far away as possible" stated the man. "This man doesn't know what he is dealing with."

Yomi didn't need to be told twice as a sudden spark shot out, arcing onto the stage. The metal construct started to glow, a faint blue aura appearing. Inoue seemed a bit surprised as the stage began to shake, small objects such as stationary and clipboards being drawn to the stage.

"Why the heck?" muttered Tomo.

Kaorin looked up towards Davids and backed away in shock. The man had become paler; the nails on his finger had become more talon like. He stood watching with a grin, his teeth sharp, tapering to menacing points. He finally turned and winked at Kaorin, his eyes chilling her. He no longer appeared to have irises. Obviously something was there as the pupil narrowed slightly as a bright light began to shine. However to Kaorin all there was was the white of most of his eye and then a slightly enlarged dark black pupil. And it was currently focused on her.

"What's the matter?" he asked, as Kaorin slunk back. "I've grown tired of hiding the peculiarities of my appearance. Besides, other people of my kind are much more different in appearance when compared to a human."

Yomi, unaware of this development, continued watching as Inoue slowly began to back away as a bright blue light suddenly filled the room. Suddenly a circle of nothingness appeared, pitch black, seemingly having no depth, a circle of blue light pulsing around the outside. Inoue looked towards Davids.

"Davids! Shut down the power!" he called out as pulses of bright light ripped through the technician team, screams of the burning men filling the room. "Davids!"

"I don't know why you insist on calling me Davids" said the man, grinning. Slowly he turned to Kaorin grinning. "Those _monsters _were just a lower form of my species designed for physical battle." He turned to face Inoue, who had a look of shock as a large piece of broken table ripped through his stomach. With a large ragged hole Inoue slumped down onto his knees before falling to the floor.

"What the crap is going on?" asked Yukari.

"Those scientists didn't find a way to create new life, they just stole it from another place" said the person known as Davids. "They created a portal to another world, another universe…my home." He looked back at the girls.

"I think it's time for me to go home" he said, walking towards the portal. "Do as you wish."

As he walked away Chiyo quickly pulled a knife out from the sheath attached to Yomi's belt and cut through the rope. Yomi borrowed Tomo's knife and soon the group were all free. They rushed to where their confiscated weapons had been placed, picking them up as "Davids" stepped forwards and was engulfed by the darkness.

Yomi began to backtrack, Yukari swearing as stuff started to fly around the room.

"It's getting bigger."

"I know" said Yomi.

"It's moving towards us."

"I know."

Yomi stood in silence and watched as it began to spread out, moving towards them. Sakaki ducked, narrowly avoiding a sharp splinter of a chair leg. As Kaorin checked on Sakaki, who hadn't been hurt at all, Yomi took a deep breath as it engulfed them. She felt a slight tightness and felt light headed. Occasional bright flashes of blue and yellow light pierced the darkness as she had a feeling of controlled falling. She could no longer resist and finally opened her mouth, breathing as normal.

She was suddenly surprised to see a sandy floor and just about stuck her hands out in time as she landed heavily. Groaning she looked to the right to see Tomo face first in the sand. Slowly she pushed herself up, shielding her eyes from a purple sun.

They definitely weren't close to home now.

_Authors note: And so my story decides to take a sharp 90 degree angle off of its current course._


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

"Ouch damn it" groaned Yukari, slowly sitting up, Tomo currently spitting out sand. "Where the hell are we?"

"Far away from home?" suggested Chiyo nervously, glancing around as a faint breeze blew up sand. Small rocks fell down one of the large rocky outcrops that surrounded them on either side, a rudimentary valley.

"Wow, what is this place?" asked Tomo, looking around in amazement and tasting sand.

"We don't know" replied Yomi. "That's the problem."

"Cool!" said Tomo standing up and pointing towards (but not looking at) the sun. "That isn't our sun! We're on a different planet!"

"We've already established that" said Yukari, busy pouring sand out of her boots. "It was quite easy to notice."

"Yeah, well I just noticed it" said Tomo. "Cool, new planet, new adventures!"

"I think we should concentrate on going home" muttered Yomi, stretching out, groaning along with her back.

"Well tough luck" said Tomo holding up her index finger and wagging it back and forth. "The thingie we went through has disappeared hasn't it?" she asked, pointing behind her.

A silence slowly fell over the group.

"We're completely isolated from our own world!" said Tomo cheerfully, as Chiyo shivered slightly and looked around nervously. "We're on our own, we're on our own" said Tomo, now dancing as Chiyo buried her head under her arms, Osaka pondering what the dancing was over.

"I fail to see what there is to be so excited about" said Yomi in a monotonous, slightly defeated voice.

"Those jerks no longer rule over us!" said Tomo, clenching her fist and holding it high. She turned, making a sweeping movement and pointing towards the sky. "No more military rule, no more strict guidelines. And someone else!"

"What?" asked Yomi following a pause.

"You are no longer automatically leader" said Tomo, jumping up and down on the spot. "Without their influence we can choose whoever we want. I nominate myself!" said Tomo, pointing at herself with both index fingers.

Yomi sighed. "Fine, I nominate myself."

"Any other people want to volunteer?" asked Tomo, staring furiously at the others.

Sakaki looked down at the ground, not interested in competing- she doubted she'd make a good leader anyway. Kaorin looked across at Sakaki. She wasn't too keen on the idea, and seeing the lack of interest from Sakaki ensured she didn't stick up her hand. Chiyo didn't bother responding, memories of the sports fests still in her mind. Osaka was busy staring at the patterns the wind made in the sand.

"Just get on with it" said Yukari.

"Ok, all those who vote for me!" said Tomo sticking up her hand. Osaka slowly watched a pebble roll across the sand.

"And all those for me?" asked Yomi, most of the others sticking up their hands. Tomo, following the group got hers halfway up before she realized what she was doing.

"What's happening?" asked Osaka, glancing around in confusion.

"Ha! One of the voters weren't aware!" said Tomo desperately. "I demand a recount!"

"Shut up Tomo" said Yukari and Yomi in unison.

"Fine then, I call second in command!" called out Tomo. She looked around, nobody protesting.

"Tomo's second in command?" whispered Kaorin to Chiyo, both looking slightly scared at the possibility.

"Well then captain…" said Tomo with an evil look in her eyes, "What do we do now then?" She slowly turned and looked at the empty desert scenery, interrupted by occasional sand dunes, as well as high rises, caused by vast rocks under the sand.

"Well we, erm, we could…" started Yomi.

"You don't know do you?" asked Tomo, standing with her hands on her hips, trying to look dignified.

"What do you recommend second in command?" asked Yomi, with a faint satisfied smile.

Tomo's mouth dropped slightly. "Huh what? Me answer question what?"

"You don't know do you?" asked Yomi, rising an eyebrow.

"Don't speak to me in that accusing tone!" spluttered out Tomo, who promptly turned around and sat down on the floor in a humph, sending up sand. "Great, now I've got sand down my back" she muttered to herself.

"Bah this wouldn't have happened if you hadn't called for me without being at a landing zone" said Yukari angrily.

"Yeah well it's not my fault you're a crazy driver" replied Yomi, both women crossing their arms. Slowly Kaorin pushed herself backwards, pulling Chiyo with her. At first the younger member yelled out in surprise, and then started moving of her own will.

"Best to stay out of the way" muttered Kaorin.

"At least there's nothing here for Yukari to drive" replied Chiyo, Kaorin agreeing with her.

"I suppose that's a positive at least. No Yukari helicopter trip."

"So I'm a crazy driver huh?" asked Yukari.

"A-ha" said Yomi, nodding her head, but growing less and less confident with every passing second.

"Well I get the job done don't I?" said Yukari. "Never on time because I'm there before" said Yukari sticking up a thumb.

No one noticed Osaka, who had pushed herself up off the ground and was busy staring over one of the nearby dunes, her rifle down on the floor as she sat watching the moving figure.

"And don't forget that I've never hurt any of you" said Yukari, nodding her head. "Nobody ever gets hurt in my vehicles" she said proudly.

"That's something you should just do, not expect praise for" whispered Chiyo to Kaorin.

"Fine, lets agree your driving skills are eccentric, you never hurt anyone, and we're in the middle of nowhere" stated Yomi.

"Agreed" said Yukari, who had grown bored of the "argument".

THUMP! THUMP!

Kaorin glanced around as loud thumping noises filled the air, along with the sounds of metallic grinding. She turned to the others who looked confused.

"What's going on now?" asked Yomi.

"Something strange" said Osaka, pointing over the sand ridge behind her. "I think we may be about to die" she said in a very calm voice. "Wait, that's bad isn't it?"

Osaka had sat in silence, watching the former security guard who seemed to have spooked Kaorin. At first she'd been drawn to the large oddly shaped rock, before movement eventually caught her attention. She'd watched as the man sprinted towards something, before slowly craning her head and noticing the giant bipedal robot thing. That had been in view the whole time. It was old looking with scratched paint and an arm hanging down uselessly. However he'd climbed up a metal ladder and seemed to start something, pulling up the ladder. Slowly it moved forwards and Yomi's question had got her attention.

Chiyo stood up and moved towards Yomi, who had picked up her weapon, and glanced around nervously.

"Crap!" yelled out Tomo as a loud WHOOSH was heard and a rocket smashed into the ground above them, showering them with sand as a powerful explosion ripped into the ground beneath the sand.

"Come on, we have to get going!" called out Yomi, "Get your supplies and weapons!"

Kaorin reached out for her bag and looked with wide eyes as something resembling a square grenade landed with a faint _puff _in the sand next to her. She sat, unable to move, merely looking at the weapon. Something designed to kill. Slowly her hands moved back. This was it huh? Her lip trembled slightly as a shadow fell across her.

In a smooth movement Sakaki leapt forwards and pushed Kaorin down, picking up the bag and using it as a shield. The others jumped to the floor as the small device exploded, and Kaorin looked up with shock as a look of pain crossed Sakaki's face, which was directly above hers, Sakaki laying on top of her.

"A-are you ok Sakaki?" she asked nervously. Please no, not Sakaki, take her not Sakaki…

Sakaki shook her head. "Just something in my leg." She slowly moved off of Kaorin, who watched the girl move away regretfully. She could have stayed there a while! Slowly Kaorin stood up, and looked at Sakaki, who pulled a small piece of shrapnel from her leg.

"I'm sorry" said Sakaki, turning Kaorin's bag to show the large amount of shrapnel that was stuck in it.

"That doesn't matter, are you sure you're ok?" asked Kaorin manically, Sakaki nodding.

Behind them the machine stomped forwards, towards them.

"We have to move now!" yelled out Yomi, "We have to find cover. And we might have to fight it!"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

"Aiee!" screamed Yukari loudly as an explosion roared close by, "No, no aaahhh!"

"Yukari!" called out Yomi, rushing forwards. "What is it?!" she yelled desperately. They had gotten lucky with Sakaki and Kaorin, not Yukari, please no one be hurt. Yukari slowly turned around with a pained look on her face.

"Yukari?" asked Kaorin worriedly, having joined Yomi, eager on helping out as much as possible having been saved by another's actions. She must help the team! And Yukari looked really hurt.

"I-I ruined my best shoes!" said Yukari bawling, pointing down. "Look, the sand has scraped at them, and I got mud on them when I got off the helicopter!"

"You idiot!" called out Yomi. "You had me worried there!"

"B-but my shoes" said Yukari looking down at them. Her head rose again, and now she seemed to have the hundred yard stare, not looking at Yomi, but instead something behind her. "They cost so much…"

"Keep running!" called out Chiyo as another explosion splashed up sand.

Osaka trudged alongside Chiyo as most of the others ran ahead, Sakaki choosing to stay behind with the two. She held up her rifle and turned, firing as one of the weapons on the walking system fired. The rocket was pierced and exploded in midair, Sakaki not even noticing, but Kaorin had seen the whole act and watched with awe.

"Get down!" yelled out Yomi, Sakaki apologizing as she pushed Osaka and Chiyo to the floor, the three getting down low into a crater, as the others jumped down into a trench, having gotten ahead of the slower people (and Sakaki).

Sakaki gripped her rifle tightly as she felt the ground shake as the machine drew near. Chiyo was petrified beside her, but was trying not to look scared, so Sakaki wouldn't focus on worrying about her. Osaka looked across at the two.

"Ah, this would make a good theme park ride" she said, nodding in agreement with her thoughts.

A short distance away Yomi peeked up and looked across as the machine grinded its way forward. She was certain it couldn't last very long, it looked old, worn down. And surely the machine couldn't have much more ammunition to use, the amount of projectile weapon fire had been ridiculous so far!

"What's it like out there?" asked Kaorin. Her friends were trapped out there…Sakaki was trapped out there!

"They're pinned down for now, it'd be stupid for them to try and get here" said Yomi.

"Well, I can guess what Osaka's plan would be then" said Yukari.

"So what can we do then?" asked Kaorin, "We can't leave them out there."

"Why not?" asked Yukari. She paused as she saw the looks. "Oh come on you know I was being sarcastic" she growled, turning away moaning to herself.

"Let's destroy that thing!" said Tomo. "Blow it up, destroy it!"

"I hardly think…"

"That's probably the best action actually" said Yomi nodding, Tomo slowly turning as she comprehended the words, before her mouth dropped in shock. Yomi agreed with her? This couldn't be!

"Impostor!" said Tomo pointing at Yomi. "The real Yomi would never agree with me!"

"Shut up Tomo" said Yomi. "We're going to have to stop that thing."

"Oh great" said Kaorin, "Gunfire and explosions" she continued, looking around wearily.

Tomo's head rose as Yukari turned back to face them.

"Gunfire?" asked Yukari.

"Explosions?" asked Tomo.

Kaorin nodded.

"Let's do it!" said Yukari and Tomo in unison.

"We'll blow that bastard apart!" said Yukari clenching her fist.

"Yeah" said Yomi, attempting to get into battle mode. "I'll teach him about harming my team."

Harming…Sakaki hurt…injured…by that thing!

"Let's kill it, destroy it, smash it, blow it up!" yelled Kaorin, eyes wide with anger. "Destruction! Complete destruction!"

"Yeah" said Yomi as the team slowly backed away as Kaorin began panting.

BOOM!

"But how do we get close enough?" asked Yukari as the group ducked down. She then started groaning as sand landed in her hair. "Eww, itchy" she grumbled to herself.

"How about we construct a rudimentary sling, and put Yomi in it and then fling it at the machine?" asked Tomo.

A faint silence fell, broken only by the metallic grinding, as the group tried to comprehend the statement.

"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Yomi finally.

"Hey, it could work" said Tomo, shrugging her shoulders.

"I'd certainly like to see something like that" said Yukari. "It'd be pretty cool."

"Don't worry, I won't let them do that" said Kaorin.

"That's reassuring."

They shoved up against the "wall" of the trench as a sudden burst of machine gun fire ripped through the ground. Yomi groaned as the gunfire stopped. This was just getting better by the minute wasn't it? Slowly she moved her head slightly to steal a look, when the sound of gunfire close by forced it back down.

"Damn it, I don't think we can get close to that thing" she muttered to herself, her first smacking into the ground. "Damn it, they're out there and there isn't a damn thing we can do!" she muttered angrily to herself, angry at the whole situation, angry at herself for allowing her group…her friends to be trapped.

She clenched hold of her gun and held it against her, eyes closed as she looked down at the floor. "Please…please don't get hurt out there" she said, "Please don't die out there."

"That bloody thing is getting close now!" called out Yukari, busy peeking over the edge as gunfire roared around her head. "Ha that guys a pretty bad shot" she said, shortly before swearing as a bullet kicked up sand a short distance from her face.

"It'd be a good idea to keep down" she said, turning to the others.

---

"I don't think they'll be able to get to us" said Chiyo, "It'd be a suicide mission."

"So we're trapped here?" asked Osaka, Sakaki nodding her head faintly, as Chiyo looked up towards the sky miserably. "Well that's not good."

"There's nothing we can do" said Chiyo, "We're trapped in the crater until we get blown up or crushed."

Sakaki turned her head slightly and looked down at the sand sadly. So this was it?

"Keep a positive outlook Chiyo, I'll take care of this" said Osaka holding up a hand and sticking up her thumb as she gripped her rifle. "I promise."

"No Miss Osaka!" called out Chiyo as Osaka slowly pushed herself up.

"I'm a sharpshooter now" said Osaka nodding. "Before my job was to take part in bread eating contests, now this is my calling. Though quite what I'm calling to I don't know. I'll have to ask Miss Yukari after this."

"Yukari isn't a teacher anymore" said Chiyo as Osaka crawled forwards. "Please don't go out there!" said Chiyo attempting to lean over Sakaki and grab Osaka.

"Stay down" said Sakaki. "Any higher up and you might get hit." She attempted to sound commanding, try and scare Chiyo into getting back down, force her to do so- she wouldn't let anything happen to Chiyo, she wouldn't allow it.

"R-right" said Chiyo, not use to Sakaki speaking very often. And certainly not used to the partially authoritative, partially wavering tone of voice. She slowly moved back and leant down, getting back into cover.

Osaka crept along the sand, reaching the edge of the crater. She reached up and brushed through her hair, watching as sand slowly fell to the ground. She sat, transfixed as the faint wind caught hold of the particles and blew them gently, floating through the air before slowly landing. She gasped in surprise as one did a faint loop through the air before disappearing on the ground. Soon the air was clear again.

"Oh" said Osaka, disappointed. "Guess I better shoot that thing then" she continued lifting up the high powered rifle. She slid out the used magazine, just in case there was nothing left (she had forgotten) and placed in a fresh clip. She really hoped it was new, and wasn't one of the old ones she'd put in her pocket to avoid littering.

She placed the rifle down on the floor, resting it upon the lip of the crater as she slowly clipped on the sight, before realizing she placed it on the wrong way. Slowly she rested against the ground, coughing as she placed her face against the sand, coughing even louder as sand entered her now open mouth.

"Please focus and get back here!" called out Chiyo.

Osaka peered through the sight, slowly moving the rifle until the machine came into view, moving forwards. She blinked once as the person came into view and spotted her, with a shocked look. As he reached out to press on the machinegun trigger Osaka closed her eyes and winced as the gun fired. The gun jolted back slightly as the bullet flew from the barrel towards the machine. It was far from hitting the cockpit, instead it struck piece of piping and then ripped through a metal pin. With a loud grind and faint bang the machine stopped, smoke rising from the hit leg. Slowly it ripped away and fell to the ground, leaving just one leg, as the machine fell towards the floor.

"Osaka you did it!" said Chiyo embracing the girl in a hug.

"Huh, what?" asked Osaka slowly opening her eyes. "Where did the thingie go?" she asked, looking confused.

"Come on, get over here!" yelled out Tomo, jumping up and down wildly, Yomi beside her with a smile. Slowly they walked towards the group, Kaorin noticing the faint black outlines flying on the horizon.

"What are those?" she asked, tugging slightly on Yomi's sleeve.

"I don't know…"

---

"Why are we out here?" hissed the pilot of the larger machine in a language far different to Japanese, or anything heard on Earth.

"Because I received a signal from the activation of a deregistered system" said the pilot of the smaller blue robotic device. "Those humans might be attempting to take one to use."

"So what is it then? Simply check up on the situation?"

"Correct. And destroy any human presence."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

"You hear something?" asked the elderly shepherd. He looked up towards the sky and saw those things. Slowly he closed his eyes and prayed, there wasn't supposed to be a patrol today, he thought he had time to travel. He thought today he would be able to reach the settlement, but no it didn't appear to be so. The person beside him didn't speak.

"Please, make it quick" he said, as he heard the sound of a bomb falling. He opened one eye and watched as with a faint _baa _one of the sheep suddenly exploded. "Shut up" he said, turning as the teenager beside him burst into laughter.

---

"Oh crap, here they come!" yelled out Yukari, "Run for-" She looked up to discover the others had in fact already set off. "Bastards! Wait for me!" she yelled out as the flying machine dropped a bomb.

Chiyo watched it fall, and the last thing she remembered before the darkness was closing her eyes before the thing could flash brightly, after all she didn't want to damage her eyes…

"_Huh?" said Chiyo, her voice echoing, the echo returning reversed. "Where am I?"_

"_This is the construct of your mind" said a male voice, "Pure imagination." _

"_Who are you?" asked Chiyo, as a pale figure stepped forward, no older then eighteen with Harry Palmer like glasses. The person pointed to himself. _

"_Me? I am just a figment of your imagination too…a pointless being who will only pose questions, never answers."_

"_Why?"_

"_Hey hey, that's my job" said the figure, adjusting his glasses. "You may call me TR. Despite my nerdy attire I do have some knowledge…and I may in fact possess ultimate power in this universe. Who knows, perhaps I am in fact more then just part of your imagination, perhaps something "higher" as you might say."_

"_But why are you here?"_

"_Let's just say I decided to jump on the bandwagon" said the ghostly figure. _

"_W-what are you talking about?" asked Chiyo nervously. She wasn't sure of this place…her imagination or something else? _

"_Some people may resist trends, attempt not to conform. I saw this spate of author self inserts, and thought why not me too?"_

"_What?"_

"_Erm, you didn't hear that last part ok?" said the figure looking nervous now. _

"_A-am I dead?" asked Chiyo._

"_No, no of course not. In fact I have a feeling this'll all turn out perfectly fine…then again it might not…"_

"_For an omnipotent being you aren't much help" said Chiyo._

"_Hey, your mind created me. Don't whine to me about it."_

"_Well, can you offer me any advice at all?" asked Chiyo, her feelings that this may be a special moment having vanished. "Please, I'm in a desperate situation, so are my friends. Do you have any advice at all?"_

"_Why, of course I have" said the figure, nodding his head. "I have a very good piece of advice."_

"_And that would be…?" asked Chiyo._

"_Watch Neon genesis evangelion. I guarantee someone like you will enjoy it" said TR, sticking up his thumb._

"_Huh, what?! What was that?" asked a (now extremely) confused Chiyo._

"_Advice" said TR, nodding his head. "Very good advice I think."_

"_So my self created guardian spirit is an otaku?" asked Chiyo._

"_Damn straight." _

"_Ok then. Any advice relating to the current life and death situation I am in?"_

"_Look to your right, and you will find shelter…" said TR as he began to vanish into a bright light akin to the lens flare on a poor Photoshop. "…And say hi to Sakaki for me…" _

Chiyo's eyes slowly opened and she pushed herself up. She looked up into the face of Kaorin, who looked relieved to see Chiyo well. Chiyo pushed herself up and started speaking frantically.

"There's shelter out here, we have to…!"

"We found it" said Kaorin, pointing behind Chiyo to a thick steel wall that vanished beneath the sand. "We're just trying to find a way in."

"Useless spirit" muttered Chiyo to herself.

"Huh, did you say something?" asked Kaorin, having vaguely heard Chiyo say something.

"Oh what, no I think you must have been imagining things" said Chiyo, looking around guiltily. She was lying, oh she told a lie to Kaorin, this wasn't right, this wasn't fair…she had become a monster! Sure it was a tiny insignificant lie, but what was to stop her becoming a tyrant, a brutal killing machine who'd look back and realize this was the moment when she became it…

"Chiyo?" asked Kaorin interrupting Chiyo's thoughts, which had been disturbed due to the recent unexplained discussion with what was possibly her own imagination.

"Yes Kaorin?" asked Chiyo.

"Are you feeling ok?" asked Kaorin.

"Y-yes, why wouldn't I be?" asked Chiyo, "Is something wrong?"

"No, not really…you were kind of acting a bit weird though, you seemed to have something on your mind."

"Oh no it was nothing, no crazy fantasies about spirits or brutal slaughter or anything" said Chiyo laughing nervously.

"…Right" said Kaorin, looking more closely at Chiyo. "You didn't happen to hit your head when you landed did you?"

"No…I don't thing so…_though that might explain some things_" said Chiyo, finishing her sentence quietly. "How are they doing over there?" asked Chiyo, pointing to the small gathering. A loud yell from Yomi followed by Tomo charging into the metal wall answered her question.

"I know we can find shelter in there" said Yukari, Sakaki agreeing with her former teacher. "We'll be much safer in there, out here we're in the open."

"Yeah, but how do we get in there?" asked Yomi, "It doesn't look like we could smash our way in, or shoot a hole in it, we can't get it."

"So what can we do then?" asked Osaka, "'cos videogames say you should always explore every area to find rewards."

"How about we use the open door button?" asked Tomo, standing behind the others, close to the steel construct.

"I don't have time for this Tomo, so please give me something constructive" said Yomi in a threatening tone.

"How about grenades?" suggested Yukari.

"The open door button?" added Tomo.

"A tin opener?" asked Osaka, "I think I have one, it might work with forces applied correctly."

"They're coming back" said Sakaki as the flying machines turned in the air and started to fly back towards them.

"Damn it, there has to be a way" said Yomi, slowly turning as Tomo patted her shoulder. "Yes?"

"Why not use the open door button" said Tomo pointing to a small grey button with the word _open _engraved into it. Yomi was certain, positive, completely sure, that at that moment something in her brain broke.

"Ok lets do that then" said Yomi as Tomo cheered and shoved the button with her finger, a faint hiss being followed by a grinding sound, which soon died down. Sand fell from cracks as the door suddenly appeared in the wall, and then it opened, a small entrance leading to a cramped dimly lit interior.

"Come on, lets go" said Yomi, calling out to Chiyo and Kaorin.

---

"It's me" said the man, speaking into the communication device of the felled weapon system in the same language as the pilots. "Do you hear me?"

"You" snarled the lead pilot. "We hear you."

"What's with that tone of voice?" asked the man, "I've come back home."

"We all know about you, Human sympathiser" roared the pilot, "Being around the enemy, and now you try to steal one of our weapons to give to them."

The man's jaw slowly dropped.

"No, I think you've slightly missed the mark there…"

"Silence! Prepare to be destroyed!"

"Ah shit" said the man, leaping from the ruins shortly before the burst into bright blue flames, shooting upwards before vanishing almost instantaneously, leaving smouldering ruins.

The man began to run towards the place he'd seen the humans enter. He was certain he knew exactly what it was…this could be most beneficial. As the bullets tore into the ground behind him, he ran faster, towards the machine. Not a shelter…but a machine.

He just about made his way inside before the door closed and vanished into a solid wall. He slowly held up his hands as he spotted at least five guns pointed towards him.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

"What the hell are you doing in here you jerk?!" asked Tomo in a aggressive manner, moving forwards, before being stopped by Yomi in case the man had a concealed weapon with him.

"Yeah, you weren't invited…were you?" asked Osaka, completely non-threateningly.

"That's true" said the man, blinking once, Kaorin backing away, still freaked out by the eyes. Those things were just so-so weird! Creepy strange eyes with large black pupils and no iris to be seen.

"Why shouldn't we just kill you?" asked Yukari.

"Because you're better then that?" suggested the man hopefully.

"Oh trust me, I'm not above that type of thing" said Yukari, holding a thick iron bar in her hand. "Believe that."

"We aren't going to kill him" replied Yomi.

"How about grievous bodily harm?" asked Yukari eagerly as she turned towards Yomi, waiting for a positive answer. She had a lot of stress she needed to work over, and this type of situation would be perfect.

"No" said Yomi, Yukari looking just as annoyed as she casually dropped the iron bar to the floor, shrieking as it narrowly missed her feet. She thought she would have learned to stop doing stupid things due to anger by now.

"Why are you here?" demanded Yomi, attempting the more intelligent approach as Yukari stood fuming and Sakaki held back Tomo who's arms were waving around the place, making circle of furious intentions. "Why did you come in here?"

"Because we now have a common interest. We both need to survive against a common enemy- you could help me and I could help you. I saw this as the best place to go to."

"How could you possibly help us?" asked Kaorin, grimacing and ducking down as the whole structure rumbled as bombs hit the roof above them. Beside her Sakaki ruefully looked up at the ceiling above. There was no knowing how long the structure could hold.

"Oh, look at how deep this place goes" said Osaka, her finger pointing towards eventual darkness. She moved towards Yomi. "Do you suppose something's down there?"

"Ye-" started Tomo, grunting slightly as Yomi's open palm caught her on the cheek and pushed her away before the wild accusations could begin, Tomo trying to resist the pushing only to find herself staring at a different wall.

"There's nothing there" said Yomi, one arm still held up to prevent Tomo getting into gear.

"That's not technically true" said the man. He watched slightly smugly as the girls (he didn't properly consider them women yet) turned to face him in surprise.

"What do you mean?" asked Kaorin.

"N-nothing's down there right?" asked Chiyo, "Nothing bad?"

The man paused for a moment, staring down at the floor, as though in deep thought. With a sudden movement that caused Osaka to back away in terror his head rose back up and he broke into a grin.

"Oh my no, nothing bad" he said, "Instead, something that may ensure our survival."

"You never told us how you could help" said Yomi, "For all we know you could be bluffing for time or something."

With his hands still held up, his index finger suddenly rose to point up to the ceiling, Osaka looking up expectantly. The man was jolted slightly as more bombs exploded above.

"As I've told you, those people do not care very much for me, and want all of us dead." He pointed to himself awkwardly with his thumb. "I have many years experience using those things, who better to aid you in battle then a person who has used, fought alongside, and against those types of machines?"

"You may not have noticed but they're in great big machines and our best shot is her" said Yukari, pointing in the general direction of Osaka who had a look of faint confusion slowly appear.

"We could always give Sakaki a sword and send her out" joked Tomo, "She might do ok."

Sakaki looked across at Yomi, who shook her head. Sakaki felt relieved. There was no telling what Tomo might try to do.

"Sword?" asked Kaorin. "What do you mean by that?"

Sakaki jolted slightly as Tomo (who had been standing behind her) walked forward and wrapped an arm over one shoulder. Tomo slowly pointed towards Sakaki who looked awkward.

"Miss Sakaki's a trained swordfighter now. But she doesn't do any competitions for some reason." With her free arm Tomo made dramatic swoops, while making _swoosh _noises. "It's quite something isn't it Sakaki?"

"I-I guess" said Sakaki, not use to boisterous praise.

Kaorin looked up at Sakaki as the image of the tall girl riding a horse to rescue her returned. Only this time she sat upon a white steed, a sword held high in one hand, stretching towards the heavens as Sakaki held out her other hand to Kaorin… Tomo scratched her head as Kaorin suddenly turned away, blushing deeply.

The man, not quite sure of what was happening, had been patiently waiting to speak, attempting to go back to the original conversation.

"And just what do you think we are in?" asked the man, glad to _finally _say the words.

"Some sort of bunker?" suggested Tomo.

Slowly the man shook his head.

"A cardboard box?" suggested Osaka.

"A tin can" said Tomo, with another suggestion.

"An English university accomodation room?" asked Yukari in the cramped room.

"Why don't you just tell us?" asked Yomi, feeling slightly agitated, as another dulled explosion was heard.

"Good idea" said Chiyo, spotting the _look _on Osaka's face that suggested something strange was about to be said.

"You are in an Inorganic robotic weapon system" said the man proudly. He stood as the others looked at him in silence. Osaka nodded while Tomo leant back against the wall with a blank expression.

"A what?" asked Yukari.

"One of those machines" said the man pointing upwards towards the unseen machines that flew above the steel roof. "You're in the torso entrance section, a very small part of the whole machine."

"A giant robot?" asked Chiyo, the man nodding.

"Cool!" said Tomo, making a triumphant V-sign. "Super robot and super attacks!"

"You have to be kidding" said Yomi, adjusting her glasses slightly.

"I recognized the small insignia. My former comrades believed it had been destroyed." He tapped against the metal. "Seems they were wrong."

"But would it work?" asked Chiyo. Along with Yomi (who refused to believe) she was the only one not to have a look of blank confusion.

"Well the concealed door worked, so there must be some energy left in it" said the man. "Or possibly a lot."

"So we kick those people's asses with a giant robot?" asked Tomo, trying to explain the situation to herself and others. Yukari muttered something in agreement, and Osaka nodded.

"Well, it all depends on your skills" said the man. "Down that corridor is the central torso and engineering facilities. You'll need to work together- two legs, one person working in each, two arms, the same, the head and the torso."

"Sakaki tie him up" said Yomi, "Let's see if he is telling the truth."

The man grinned. "I think you'll enjoy this" he said, looking towards Tomo. "Oh and you may know me as Davids. My true name takes a while to say and highlights my impediment in my natural language. So just call me Giarc, it's a nickname."

"I'll call you whatever I like" said Tomo.

"How about Giarc?" asked the man.

"Sure, I'm fine with that."

"Humans are strange, strange creatures."

---

Yomi coughed slightly as thick dust gently floated around in the moderately sized room, having been stirred up by the people entering it. She turned on her torch and slowly scanned the room, spotting a chair sticking out of the wall, resting at an angle to the floor, owing to the fact the machine was currently resting upon its 'back'. As she turned she spotted the large screen and control panel resting within the 'roof'. A short distance from her Tomo yelled out as she narrowly avoided falling through an open doorway that due to the machine's current position was built into the floor.

"That leads into what I guess you humans would call the engine room" said Giarc.

"I'll go take care of that" said Yukari, picking up a wrench that rested against the door frame in the floor.

"I'll…help" said Chiyo nervously, as Yukari lowered herself down into the engine room.

"You" said Giarc, staring at Osaka particularly intently, the girl slowly moving further and further back until standing behind Sakaki. "You're the one with the gun skills right?" he asked, "You led to me being here."

"Yes" said Osaka nodding. "It's my duty along with eating bread."

"What?" asked Giarc. "Anyway, the left arm section had a projectile weapon firing capability, and probably has the default weapon available."

"What?"

"The left hand is holding a ridiciously oversized rifle, it'd be best for you to use it."

"I agree with him" said Yomi, "If that is true. You're the best shot we have. _God knows how that worked out though_. So why not have a look?"

Yomi's head slowly turned as cursing from Yukari and cries from Chiyo were suddenly heard. A light flicked on, and a dim blue colour could be seen on the screen above. Reserve power had evidently been restored. Two hands suddenly appeared on the door frame, and Chiyo's head appeared.

"This thing may start up soon. We'd better strap ourselves down so we don't go flying around."

"Uh, this place had a chair" called out Osaka, "And it has some type of screen, I think it might be a console game room."

"That's a screen to view the outside world" called out Giarc.

"There are control's here too" said Osaka.

"I call the other arm" called out Tomo, running through to the other arm, laughing manically. Yomi groaned as Tomo's head slowly reappeared from behind the wall. "It's like a giant game system" she said grinning, "There's like a joystick and buttons- coloured buttons!"

Sakaki ducked down slightly as a rumble passed through the machine.

"Something's happening!" yelled out the concealed Yukari as Chiyo pulled herself back into what Yomi had already dubbed the control room.

"The people controlling the legs will have to work together" stated Giarc.

"I could try" said Sakaki. Kaorin looked across at her in admiration.

"I could try too, I mean it might work, might as well try huh?" said Kaorin in a frantic manner.

"Go for it" said Yomi, the two walking forwards in what would normally be down, Kaorin close to Sakaki. Yomi tapped a finger against her head. The sooner the machine was at the right angle, the better. This was getting confusing.

"I'll stay in here" said Chiyo, groaning slightly as she fell back into the chair currently sticking out from the wall.

"You'll be tied to the uncomfortable looking chair in the corner" said Yomi, Giarc moaning.

"What about me?" called out Yukari as Yomi sprinted towards the head section.

"Just try to hold onto something" called out Yomi, "You're the engineer now."

"Cool" said Yukari to herself, gripping hold of a pipe. She steadied herself. She hoped this would be like a ride, she hadn't been to a theme park in ages, as they had all been closed due to the threat of terrorism.

Chiyo looked up at the screen as it suddenly burst into full high definition colour, showing off part of the sky as the sand that covered the machine fell away as it began to rise. The sky slowly filled more and more of the screen, as the dim light was replaced by a pleasant light, not too bright, but not too dark.

"Is everyone in place?" asked Yomi, speaking into a small device built into the headrest of her chair.

"Yes" came the reply from the others as the machine's arms reached back and started to push itself up.

Giarc, without a seatbelt, gripped hold of the armrests with his bound hands. "This is all automatic! But in a minute or so you'll have to control it!"

"Let's see what this thing can do" said Yomi, as the two enemies came into view.

---

"What the hell?"

"What is it?"

"The system is reporting the activation of an IRWS!"

"That can't be right! There aren't any around here."

"It says right- there it is!" called out the pilot as the dark green, humanoid robot came into view, two arms, two legs.

The right arm rose, and the fingers drew back, until only the index finger remained, pointing towards the pilots.

"Prepare to have your asses kicked!" called Tomo into one of the microphones, her voice blaring out of a speaker built into the side of the arm.

"Looks like we have a proper battle on our hands" said the lead pilot. "This should be fun."


	13. Chapter 13

_If there's one thing the world needs, other then several thousand other things, it's Azumanga Daioh mecha fanfiction. Oh and I've never watched Gundam. _

Chapter Thirteen

"Let's crush them!" yelled out Yukari, who currently found herself upside down, one hand tightly gripping a (thankfully) solid piece of piping.

"How?" asked Chiyo, greeted by no answers. All she could see was danger, no proper way to defend themselves, resorting to using alien technology. "Help me spirit" she muttered to herself. No answer. "Useless spirit" she sighed to herself.

"I'll take care of this!" called out Tomo, flicking a series of switches and pressing down on some buttons. Her seat moved back slightly and a fan turned on. "Well I still know how to control the fingers" she said to herself.

"Don't mess around with too much stuff Tomo!" warned Yomi. Something bad could easily happen she thought.

"I don't understand this" said Chiyo to herself, "How can we be controlling this without any prior training?"

"Meh, I guess you just have a good synch ratio" said Giarc, sitting partially upside down in his chair. Chiyo didn't bother to ask what he meant by that. "You know, you could help me get into a comfortable position" grumbled the being, Chiyo ignoring him due to the fact her attention was focused on the strange machines.

"At least we aren't fourteen years old and angsty" commented Yukari from her position in the 'engine' room. "Jeez that would be annoying."

"Look at those guys, buzzing around like flies! Makes me wanna swat them out of the sky!" called out Tomo eagerly.

"Don't get too ahead of yourself Tomo" said Yomi, "Don't boast until the fight is over."

"But it's more fun this way" said Tomo disappointedly.

"Don't worry Tomo, there are plenty of flies to swat in the world" said Osaka.

"Let's keep this line clear huh?" asked Tomo, laughing nervously.

"What line? Are we fishing now?" asked Osaka. "We don't have any bait to use…"

A faint crackling sound caught Yomi's attention, and she was caught by surprise as a small screen burst into life, showing the side of another cockpit. Evidently the camera had been turned so as not to be pointing towards the pilot, who must have wanted to remain anonymous.

"Er, hello?" said Yomi. She sat back in her chair, waiting for a moment as no answer came. What the hell was the point of this then? To show on the drab interior of another cockpit? To scare her by having the screen suddenly turn on? Yomi's finger began to tap down impatiently, this was annoying her now. Surely there must have been a reason for this?

"Wait a human!" said a voice suddenly, in heavily accented Japanese that scared Yomi as it suddenly came out of the blue. "A filthy human is defiling one of our machines! This is not acceptable!"

"You aren't too good yourself" said Yomi, not quite sure how to respond. "And you started dropping bombs on us innocent girls."

"I'll pound all of you into the ground, female or not! We are a higher being then you, I possess the ability to speak your language and several others. I bet you could not speak my proper language."

"Probably not" said Yomi. "But I doubt you could survive on a busy Tokyo street at Christmas time."

"I won't be seeing you again girl, unless I find you within the tracks of one of my feet and I have to scrap you off."

"You must be a winner with the ladies."

"Prepare to die young human."

"I can't promise anything" said Yomi in an annoyed tone. Arrogant, annoying bastard! The screen clicked off and Yomi leant forward in the chair. That guy had really pissed her off! Even these aliens or whatever the hell they were had annoying men too!

"Tomo?" said Yomi softly into the intercom built into the chair.

"Yeah Yomi?"

"Feel free to crush them into the ground, stomp on them, and then crush them again for good measure" said Yomi in an oddly polite and delicate manner.

"Well, I guess I'll have to follow my orders" said Tomo, grinning as she looked towards the two enemies. "You're both mine now" she said to herself.

On the opposite side of the mecha (or robot) Osaka sat, gently pulling on a joystick, watching an outlay screen showing the wrist section causing the hand gripping the weapon to turn. Through the screen that sat in front of her, that gave a hundred and eighty degree view of the world outside she could see part of the vast rifle the giant green hand held onto. And in the distance the two other robots (or mecha) stood waiting, watching them. Something was going to happen soon.

"Oh, it's just like a western standoff" she said to herself. Slowly she began to hum an offbeat _Good, the bad and the ugly _theme to herself.

"Girls!" said Giarc, using the power of his neck to try and use his head to push himself into a more comfortable position. "Those are H-class IRWS, piloted and controlled by a single person."

"Why are you telling us that?" asked Chiyo, turning and suddenly noticing the odd position of the man- should arms bend like that?

"So you don't hold back for fear of hurting several people" said Giarc. "You don't want to hurt several people do you?"

"Hehehe" said Tomo, "Even if you said those machines had more people in them then in this one I'd still run them into the ground!"

"Kaorin, Sakaki, move us forwards" commanded Yomi, as one of the machines began to fly forwards. Coming straight for them. Time for battle.

"Right" said Kaorin, nodding to herself. She hoped she could work well with Sakaki, they'd have to work in tandem, have to do a good job, or else they might all die…

---

The smaller machine flew at a fast pace towards the large green machine, a short distance above the ground as it's hands adapted a strange pose, designed to rip through the armour of the torso, tear straight through. The pilot glanced up from his controls as the green mecha moved one leg forwards and stomped down on the ground rather crudely.

"Do you have no sense of subtlety?" muttered the pilot to himself.

The other leg rose up and hung in the air for seemingly an eternity, preparing to land back on the ground as Kaorin desperately wrenched the controls out of a suddenly locked position. The mecha shook slightly, before Kaorin freed the controls and the foot slammed down into the ground. However the machine stumbled, and leant over to one side. The pilot grinned- this would be easy! A clear path!

"Prepare to die" he said to himself proudly as he flew at top speed to the unguarded chest area. He'd rip right through, destroy the workings, shut down the machine and kill! It was open to him, the people inside were trying to rebalance the machine, he could- his thoughts were interrupted as a shadow suddenly appeared. Wondering what was going on his slowly looked up and groaned.

"Drunken stumble swipe!" yelled out Tomo, swinging down her (mecha) arm and smashing it into the smaller machine, the hit side crumpling slightly before it lost control, flying towards the ground. The last things the pilot thought before the damaged machine exploded was, how? Why?

"What was that Tomo?" asked Yomi as she watched the burning wreckage. …One down.

"You have to yell out the attacks, and make up names for them, it's the mecha way!" said Tomo defiantly.

"You really are an idiot" said Yomi.

"Yeah, well I just saved us didn't I?" replied Tomo smugly. _Score one to me!_

"I-I'm so sorry, the controls stopped working and I really tried to-" started Kaorin nervously, close to tears. She'd failed, almost got them killed!

"You recovered" said Sakaki quietly. "You didn't panic, and landed the leg."

"Yeah, don't worry Miss Kaorin, it was a technical failure, not human error" said Chiyo, "One of the displays here states that you managed to unlock the leg which locked up for some reason!"

"Oh, ok" said Kaorin, wiping away the tears that had formed. She was glad no one had seen them. "Ok then. Let's take care of that other one."

"I bet that guy must be really pissed" said Yomi to herself. "We just destroyed his companion" she said quietly, as the burning machine suddenly exploded again, a smaller secondary explosion.

"So what, we can take him…can't we?" asked Yukari.

"Sure we can!" said Tomo, "I'll crush them!"

"And I'll shoot with my eyes closed!" said Osaka, "That usually works…"

Yomi grinned to herself. What a bunch of idiots…good idiots, but idiots nonetheless. And she smiled as an idea passed into her head. Not so much ideas as a name…

"Let's end this and see what happens from here. Oh and I've thought of some names."

"Ah, what?" asked Osaka.

"Bonkura Brigade, lets move out!" said Yomi. "Let's defeat that guy with Guzu-baka!"

"Guzu…baka?" muttered Chiyo. That didn't sound good.

"Roger that Yomi!" shouted Tomo gleefully. "Time to show them the power of Guzu-baka!"

* * *

_Omake_

I suppose some of you are wondering how the story got to this point…others ponder where they can get the stuff I seem to be smoking. Constantly. My initial story was to do with an island populated by genetically engineered dinosaurs to fulfil my boyhood love of Dinosaurs. I had no plan, and at around chapter 2 I moved away from being serious, by chapter three I had no idea how to explain what they'd find. I was playing by ear, but writing. A short time in I came up with basically the crazy idea I'm currently writing of a mecha controlled by the Azu-girls in another world. It suddenly all fell into my mind and I began planning it all out, leading to a name change as my planned story changed completely. I had the villains roughly, knew where I wanted to go, events and so on. But what to do with the few chapters I had posted? I used a few details and melded my new storyline into it, and decided, in line with my parody type nature, to go for a crazy, completely out of nowhere twist to reveal the main storyline.

Basically by the time of the "blood bunker" I had planned to have this chapter come into being.

Now my story shouldn't have so many crazy twists…told you my ending of this story wouldn't be expected…you'd have to have been as crazy as me to see it coming…


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

"Show them the power of Guzu-baka?" asked Yukari. "What kind of stupid comment is that?"

"At least I'm getting into the spirit" said Tomo, "What are you doing apart from putting us down and swearing?" asked Tomo. "That type of language is appalling in front of Chiyo-chan."

"Hey, I'm a young adult now" said Chiyo defiantly. "I know all of those types of words Tomo."

"Oh yeah, well do you know about –_censored_-?" asked Yukari smugly. She leant out of the engine room, looking into the main central control room, just so Chiyo could see the smug look on her face. The look became even worse when she saw the shocked look on Chiyo's face.

"I hadn't" said Chiyo still in a faint sense of astonishment.

"What the hell does that mean?" asked Yomi.

"Ah, my ears are burning" said Osaka, "Well they aren't really, it was just a figure of speech. Why would my ears be burning due to words? It doesn't really make sense."

"I hate to interrupt this productive conversation but what about that thing trying to kill us?" asked Kaorin. She leant back in her seat as the machine across from them stood still, floating a short distance above the ground. She slowly scratched her head as she pondered over whether they'd be able to win this fight. After all, they had defeated that other one, so there was definitely a chance.

"Yukari, how does the erm, engine or whatever look like?" asked Yomi.

Down in the engine room Yukari took a quick look at the various equipment and shrugged her shoulders. She had no idea what was going on, but nothing seemed to be on fire, juddering violently, or making grinding noises so she guessed it look alright. She wondered how she'd ended up in here, while Tomo would get to pummel enemies. She wanted that job. Yukari remembered Yomi had asked a question and turned back to the intercom. She clicked it on and leaned forward. She was still a moment, pondering over the best way to explain the situation.

"Yeah, all the stuff seems ok" she finally said.

"Stuff? Is that a technical term?" asked Tomo sarcastically.

"Shut up Tomo" replied Yukari almost instantly. She'd been expecting that from either Tomo or Yomi. Or possibly from Chiyo as an honest enquiry.

"She's our engineer?" muttered Tomo, hoping to get a rise from the older woman. "Can we trust her?"

"Well…" started Chiyo, Yukari pausing, waiting for a good defence from good, honest Chiyo. "She somehow managed to keep the Yukari mobile going, so she must have some skill."

"I guess so Chiyo" said Tomo. "At least with her down there, we don't have to worry about crashing into anything."

"Just keep going" said Yukari chuckling evilly, "and I'll destroy this stuff and take this machine down. Then we'll see who is worried."

---

Across from the recently named machine the opposition pilot sat in his cockpit, waiting impatiently. Those damn humans had just boasted about showing power, but they had just sat there. Perhaps they were stupid enough to stay still in a battle, or perhaps it was some sort of battle move? He decided there was no way these people would be stupid enough to just wait around in a battle- after all what could they be doing- talking? Arguing?

One arm leant out, a three fingered hand taking a tight hold of one of the controls. A long sharp nailed finger on the other hand poked a button on the opposite side of the controls and he scratched his head as a faint whirring sound was emitted. He sat for a moment, waiting, it'd be here soon…

A small door in the wall slid open and the person gripped hold of a cup filled with fizzy green liquid. If he was going to wait, he might as well enjoy a fizzy drink. He slowly sipped it down, licking his dry thin lips with a sharp tipped tongue. He'd replaced the drinks machine in this model- replacing the water dispenser with a more palatable drink. His eyes suddenly widened and he spat out the drink as what could be described as a large bullet suddenly flew by.

In the Guzu-baka Osaka turned around, despite no-one being there.

"Sorry, I had my eyes open."

"Er, I don't think that should cause you to miss…"

"I suppose you're right there."

---

The shot having long since faded into memory, an unnerving stillness had come over the whole situation. The only signs of movement appeared to be the hot flames that still burned upon the downed robot. Most of the pilots of the Guzu-baka were still, anticipating a potentially deadly battle. Tomo however had taken picking at her teeth and tapping on the armrest as though it were a drum. She was bored of this, and couldn't understand why they simply didn't charge. Sure there were plans and tactical knowledge to take into account, but they were in a mecha now! Just charge and fight!

Across from the arm section in which Tomo sat, Chiyo was busy checking her seatbelt to make sure it was both tight as possible and had a fully working quick release mechanism, just in case. A collection of data was spread across the main screen, and smaller secondary screens, and by reading some of the writing she had deciphered that this strange machine was currently fully operational and had a high level of power. She glanced around, looking at the ladder built into the wall behind, concealed slightly by steel walls, that led up to Yomi's cockpit. A quick look down revealed the steel ladders for each of the legs, which would have to be used now that the Guzu-baka (she still was uncertain) was operational and upright.

"Hey young human female" said Giarc.

Chiyo paused for a moment, pondering over what this…was person the correct word? She didn't think he was human, so she didn't know if she could use the word person. But whatever she thought he might try to put doubts into her mind, try and have a negative effect. Finally she turned to him.

"Yes?" she asked kindly. Even if he was an enemy who had tried to kill her, she could at least afford manners.

"I have to tell you that this machine is an older model" said Giarc unemotionally.

"Oh I see…" Chiyo paused- perhaps he was trying to make her doubt all of this! He was a prisoner after all- a member of the enemy side.

"However fortunately for you this is a very strong machine" said Giarc. "Very few machines of this class type were ever created. You should win this. That bastard tried to kill me, so I hope you and your friends do well."

"Erm, ok then" replied Chiyo, taken back both by the support, and the use of a swearword by the prisoner. She guessed she could believe what had been said… Besides she found herself within the torso, she could just sit back and enjoy what happened. Though she seriously doubted she'd enjoy whatever was about to befall them.

She turned back to facing forward in the (surprisingly comfortable) chair as Yomi's voice was suddenly heard over the system wide intercom, speaking to everyone at the same time. The group listened as Yomi began to speak, though Tomo was partially thinking about how long it had been since she cut her toenails, while Yukari was pondering over where to find a strong drink.

"We're about to fight…again. Good luck everyone, lets take that guy down. And try to keep this thing in one piece too."

"I promise nothing" called out Tomo cheerfully as she looked towards the opposition mecha with the delighted expression of a hungry lion spotting an isolated tourist all too happy for said lion to approach him.

---

With a faint sound of anger the pilot pressed down on his controls and floating ten feet above the ground charged towards the recently acquired mecha. One of the arms rose, Osaka letting out a volley of oversized, overpowered gunfire which the machine dodged, one of the bullets very close to scraping an arm. The pilot watched in disbelief as the hand on the opposite arm contracted to form a middle finger pointing towards him.

He growled, wishing he'd actually brought weapons with him, he'd just been expecting a routine patrol mission- no need for heavy armament. As he flew towards the humans at high speed, one of the arms reached down and gripped a large rock, the pilot ignoring the warning sirens as the friction of passing across the ground began to grind away metal. He'd smash the rock into the head section, knock it clean off. He grinned- that would work- and then grip hold of the resulting hole in the shell and pull that damn thing apart.

He held up the rock as it got closer, preparing to striker- close, so close-

He was shocked as the weapon free arm of the green robot reached up and simply grabbed the rock from him.

"Thank you for that!" called out Tomo cheerfully, the pilot choosing to fall back. Slowly Tomo caused her arm to move back- the pilot swore it was taking a throwing pose.

"Ah, what's going to happen?" said Osaka dreamily.

"Hard thrown rock of pain!" yelled out Tomo, followed almost instantly by Yomi muttering the word idiot.

The pilot was caught by surprise as the rock smashed into his craft and ripped off one of the legs.

"Shut up!" he yelled as various warning sounds were made.

"Osaka, fire!" yelled out Yomi.

"Right" said Osaka, nodding as she took aim. She felt her finger slowly close around the trigger of the joystick controller. She clicked down on it once and let out a faint _wow _as the vast gun held in front of her fired violently, a large bullet tearing through the knee section of the opposite leg.

"Wow, I hit it even with my eyes open" she said, vaguely proud as the lower leg fell to the floor in a metallic heap.

"You seem to only be half a man now" said Yomi in a faintly superior sounding tone.

"Yeah but I'm still going to destroy you!" yelled the pilot, Yomi moving away from the speaker. She wondered if the guy had been trying to deafen her or something stupid like that. She looked upwards and saw the machine heading towards them.

"Osaka, slide the weapon into the hold on the back and prepare for manual combat!"

"Ok Yomi" said Osaka dreamily, Yomi surprised that Osaka had understood straight away.

As the gun was placed into a holding slot built into the back, Yomi began to hear the annoying laughter of the pilot as he charged. He appeared to be boasting something about killing them all, as the arms of the damaged machine rose, almost as thought preparing to throttle Guzu-baka. His laughter continued as he got closer, until it was replaced by a surprised garble as in one swift movement Tomo and Osaka raised up the arms and gripped hold of the smaller enemy arms.

"What the-"

"Do it Tomo, Osaka" said Yomi gleefully.

Together Tomo and Osaka pulled in opposite directions, yanking out the arms and throwing them to the floor disdainfully. With a critical level of damage the machine continued to just about float until Tomo smacked it over the head and knocked it down. It landed heavily on the floor, doing it's best Nana impersonation as just the torso and head remained.

"D-damn it" muttered the pilot as the critical warning started. An explosion was imminent…he decided to remain within the machine and Yomi watched as it was vaporized in a vast green fireball that almost reached her level.

There was silence for a moment.

"We won didn't we?" asked Kaorin finally.

"Yes" said Sakaki.

"Victory!" called out Tomo. "Yukari's buying the drinks!"

"Like hell I am!"

_With that the first battle of the Guzu-baka was won. The enemies were defeated, destroyed, and the group remained standing, ready for-_

"Yomi, where do we go now?" asked Tomo.

"I don't know."

つづく


	15. Chapter 15

My apologies for an extended period of writer's block.

Chapter Fifteen

Slowly the middle aged man reached up and gripped hold of the large rock jutting out above him. His deeply tanned face showed extreme concentration as he pulled himself up, the three other men in his party at varying points on the rock face. He looked upwards and could tell he was very close to reaching the top now. He'd be glad when he could return home and wear his preferred clothes, look more presentable.

"Excuse me sir, can you hear that?" called up his guide, a man who'd traversed the wilderness many times.

"Yes I can" called back the man, as a faint noise slowly became louder, an odd mixture of a mechanical whooshing and gliding sound. He ignored it and continued to climb. The guide was slightly hesitant, but as the other two men followed he decided to continue climbing too.

Soon the top of the summit was reached and the man pulled himself up. He looked out at what faced him, a vast distance of flat land, the group having climbed up from the valley below. He glanced down at a sand worn watch and wondered where the person he was expecting to meet had gotten to. He turned, slightly annoyed now as the guide tapped him on the shoulder.

"What is it?" he asked, trying to remain polite.

"L-look sir" said the guide pointing, as a vast mecha slowly began to land, feet landing upon the ground with a heavy thud.

"Ah I see" said the man as the other two companions began to search for their guns.

---

"You don't know what to do?" asked Yukari loudly. "That's a bit stupid!"

Yomi sighed to herself, thankfully isolated in the head section. "We're on what appears to be a completely different planet to our own. I can't just go up to someone and ask for directions back to Earth can I?" asked Yomi.

"You could try" said Osaka. "But I'm not good at remembering directions so I'd have to write them down."

"Somehow I doubt that would work" said Yomi in an annoyed tone. "I don't think there are many people around here who know how to get back home- or even know what our home is."

"Bah, it just sounds like you don't know what you are doing" said Tomo leaning back in her chair with a smug look upon her face. "You just sound like an idiot to me."

"Ah, I see" said Yomi. "Why don't you come up here and give me that smug opinion to my face then Tomo?" continued the girl, the aggressive tone extremely clear now. "I'd like that a lot."

"Please stop!" called out Chiyo.

"Yes, stop this!" added Kaorin. "We can't turn against each other, especially not here- we'll be killed if we do."

"You humans should listen to the young one and the slightly timid girl" said Giarc calmly. "You are in a new place here, independence, while admirable, may not get you far here."

"And why should we listen to you weird boy?" asked Yukari, "You're just one of the enemy."

Chiyo glanced across at Giarc as he rubbed his head against the chair in frustration, his hands not free to rub his head. He continued this until he was satisfied, before he then looked up and Chiyo backed away slightly due to his surprisingly intense stare.

"How many more times are you going to ask me why I can be trusted?" he asked in a grumpy manner. Chiyo scratched her arm and mumbled a rough form of apology on Yukari's behalf- after all he was looking straight at her.

"Well just because…" she muttered faintly.

"Besides, I was only offering the viewpoint of common sense and not tactical advice that could be questioned" said Giarc, "I would expect you to think the same thing female human whose name I do not know."

Yomi found herself smirking as Yukari fell silent, not able to come up with a suitable retort. The bespectacled girl decided to enjoy the moment of silence that had fallen over the giant robotic weapon. She also composed herself and slowly leant back in her chair, pondering over what to say. She tapped her finger against the chair and took in a deep breath of air. She knew what she should do.

"Tomo?" she said, speaking softly.

"Yes?" asked Tomo in a slightly sulky voice, knowing that she'd probably be able to get away with a bit more following Yomi's aggressive outburst. After all she was certain for a brief period they'd be on her side…she just had to realize not to push it.

"Do…do you have something to say?" asked Tomo, enjoying the moment greatly. "Something to say to me?"

Yomi paused for a moment, gritting her teeth as she prepared herself to speak. She knew Tomo was enjoying this quite a bit. She slowly adjusted her glasses. _Bloody Tomo._

"Yeah Tomo, I just want to say that I am-"

She glanced up in surprise as a small warning siren started making a noise, an annoying red light flashing above her head. She leant forwards and clicked down on the cockpit intercom.

"What's all this about Chiyo?" asked Yomi, "What's going on?"

Below Yomi Chiyo was busy viewing the various screens that sat in front of her, typing on a keyboard she had found that could be retracted back into her chair. She was surprised to find it had a QWERTY setup. Due to her studying in America she had learnt proficient English so had no trouble using it- but she wasn't sure why English characters were present.

"So what's going on Chiyo?"

"It's detected a large energy spike close by" replied Chiyo, satisfied that was what was happening. "I think there's at least one of those robot things close by."

"How close by is it?" asked Yomi.

"I think it's pretty close" said Chiyo as a missile smashed into the ground a short distance away and promptly exploded, throwing up sand and rock. "Just over that rise."

"Excellent, excellent full charge into battle!" called out Tomo, "Smash and…erm smash" she said, at a loss for words.

"Is conflict necessary?" asked Chiyo.

"Of course it is…they might call for backup if they see us" replied Tomo.

"You just want to use this machine again don't you?" asked Kaorin.

"That's not…the…well…not the whole truth."

"We don't really have a choice anyway" said Yomi, "It seems to know that we are here. And this is hardly the type of machine to make a stealthy getaway in."

"So…battle time right?" asked Tomo. "Right?"

Yomi muttered a faint yes, and with encouragement from Tomo, Kaorin and Sakaki charged the machine forwards, preparing to leap only for Sakaki to tell Kaorin to stop.

"What is it Sakaki-san?" asked Kaorin.

"People" said Sakaki quietly. "People are down there."

"This makes it more difficult."

"Couldn't we just crush 'em?" asked Yukari. "It was a joke you dumbass!" she added as she heard the faint sigh of Yomi emit from the speaker next to her.

Yomi ignored the comment from Yukari, as she began to hear a garbled message, evidently from the enemy machine. She clicked off the intra-IRWS intercom, much to Yukari's annoyance as the message continued.

"…got…attention. Good…here and help…hurry up."

Yomi paused, not sure how to reply- or if it were a good idea to reply. But then again, if she didn't bother replying the person may get suspicious- after all it seemed the missile had been launched to get there attention- it hadn't been very close to hitting them. For now it appeared the other pilot thought that they were an ally. Perhaps there was some way of using that-

"Hey Yomi, what's going on, we can't talk to you" said Tomo, poking her head up through the entrance hatch. "Are you brooding?"

"No I'm not" replied Yomi curtly.

"Course you aren't" said Tomo sarcastically.

"You know" said Yomi looking down at Tomo's head, sticking up, "I could very easily kick you in the head from this position."

"I'll be good" said Tomo, climbing back down the ladder, Yomi turning back to the small speaker which crackled back into life.

"…urry up! G…h…now."

Yomi slowly clicked down on the transmit button. She opened her mouth and started to speak as deeply as she could, unsure whether only males were supposed to pilot the machines- after all the element of surprise would be very useful.

"I understand" she said, grimacing at her fake attempt at a male voice, "I'm coming over to help."

She flicked back on the IRWS communications and called to Sakaki and Kaorin.

"Move us forwards, he doesn't know that we are an enemy."

"Understood" replied Kaorin.

Slightly more gracefully then previously the tall machine crunched it's way forward, cracking rocks and compacting sand as it moved towards the larger machine. Osaka was busy napping in her chair while in the opposite arm section Tomo was completely alert, looking towards action. Yomi thought she hadn't heard much from Osaka, so sent a message.

"Osaka? Osaka can you hear me?" she asked. "Could you answer me please?"

The disembodied voice slowly awoke Osaka from her slumber who looked around in confusion.

"God? Wow you sound a lot like Yomi" she said still slightly asleep.

"That's because I am Yomi."

"Wow, Yomi you mean you are-"

"No I'm not" said Yomi, knowing the question that was coming. "I just wanted to wake you up."

"Huh? I wasn't sleeping was I? I can't remember much after closing my eyes…oh wait."

"Yes well…" she paused as the inter vehicle device crackled into life again. Having moved closer the signal was stronger now.

"Why…you in deregistered…cle?" asked the voice. "Tha…veh…shouldn't exist" growled the opposition pilot. "What are…doing!"

"Hey Tomo, I think you and Osaka better get ready" muttered Yomi unenthusiastically.

"I'm ready" replied Tomo eagerly, "Really ready. Can I throw a rock again?"

"You better-"

"Look out, it's coming this way!" called out Chiyo loudly. She fell silent for a moment, thinking over her outburst. "I mean the machine is probably about to attack us" she added, in a calmer voice.

The taller machine continued its charge, one metallic hand reaching up and grabbing hold of the arm section Osaka sat in. She glanced around as a faint creaking noise was emitted.

"This looks bad" said Chiyo, as data flashed across the screens.

"Osaka, free yourself!" called out Yomi.

"I can't" said Osaka, seemingly the calmest on board, despite the fact she could be crushed. She clicked down on various buttons as her section shook slightly.

"Osaka, get back into the torso section."

"But what about the arm?" asked Osaka, "I wouldn't want to be a one armed robot."

"Tomo can you do anything?" asked Yomi, "If the arm is ripped off the whole structure might be in danger."

"I'll try" said Tomo, gripping her controls tightly. She paused as the robotic hand formed a fist, not noticing a small bar hidden in the wall which slowly began to fill upwards with white light, reaching an eighty four percent marker. She pulled the arm back as the opposing machine tried to tighten its grip.

"Try this one!" called out Tomo, "Takino fist of justice!" she yelled out, the first rushing forwards and smashing into the robot, tearing out the other side. Surprised Tomo rose the arm, tearing through the robot which juddered momentarily before exploding violently.

---

"Thank you for your help" said the tanned man as two members of his team walked around behind him looking uneasy.

"You really don't need to do this" said Yomi as Yukari eagerly gripped hold of a bag of currency- gold and silver coins. Yukari glared at Yomi when the suggestion of giving it back was raised.

"No no, I insist" said the man. "I happen to have more money then I know what to do with, so it's always good to help out other people."

Sakaki was busy looking down uneasily at the gift she had been given, not fully sure how to act. Tomo had spotted the sword and mentioned Sakaki's sword training- and the man had eagerly given it to her. He'd explained how he collected them and had reassured her many times that she would probably get more use out of it. Their prisoner had remained hidden, kept in the mecha.

"Thank you very much for your kindness" said Chiyo, bowing gracefully.

"It is nothing at all" said the man smiling kindly. "You say that you are a bit lost?" he asked.

"Well…you could say that" said Yomi, glancing across at the others.

"Well I can give you one further piece of help. First though, my name is Ricardo, I never told you, how rude of me. Anyway, if you continue to move forwards in the direction you are facing you will soon find a village. Good luck to you."

---

Ricardo and his group soon left, the others climbing back into Guzu-baka.

"Let's find that village" said Yomi.

"I could do with some food" added Yukari as the vast machine began to walk forwards.

End of part one


	16. Chapter 16

**Part Two**

Chapter sixteen

"Get out of here kid! Move now, leave me alone" said the man in a dismissive tone as the small girl looked up at him. She continued to look up at him curiously, the man turning away in disdain. Confused slightly, she slowly itched her head before skipping away singing. The flower she had offered the man remained on the floor, the man having let go of it…not wanting anything _she _had touched.

She continued to hum to herself as she skipped past the rock walls, lights built into the roof lighting up the underground passage. She grinned as she felt her backpack bouncing up and down on her back, failing to notice the looks of almost loathing from the woman she skipped by. The woman muttered something to her daughter who looked up and nodded.

She continued to skip forwards until she bumped into a man who stepped out into the passageway. She looked up as the man looked down at her menacingly.

"I've been looking for you" he said.

"Really?"

"Yes. I've spent two hours looking for you."

"Oh…I'm sorry. Here, have this" she said holding up the flower, the young man taking it and smiling.

"You were supposed to give these to other people."

"No one really wanted flowers" said the small girl nodding.

"That's ok. Let's get some dinner huh Yotsuba?" asked the man.

"Yay!"

---

"So where are we supposed to go?" asked Tomo, head poking up through the entrance hatch and looking towards Yomi. With no enemies and no need for combat, to Yomi's horror, Tomo was free to roam- and had chosen to come to her.

"We just keep going this way- we're going in a straight line. It isn't exactly difficult" said Yomi.

"What if there's a mountain in the way?" asked Tomo.

"We go around."

"What if there's a river in the way?"

"We go around it" said Yomi.

"How about if there's a glacial ice sheet in the way?" asked Tomo, Yomi letting out an annoyed grunt, possibly used to prevent foul language.

"I'd let you go outside ice skating" said Yomi suddenly noticing the look of excitement that crossed Tomo's face. "You aren't really going to do that." She slowly looked away from Tomo who had _the look_. Yomi really hoped they didn't find any ice sheets now. Of course being in the middle of a desert that would be highly unlikely. But Yomi couldn't be sure- after all this appeared to be a different planet- it could possibly belong to another universe for all she knew.

Tomo's head juddered for a moment as she looked down at something below. It rose again, Tomo looking towards Yomi.

"I'm going to get something to eat. Do you want anything?"

"I could do with a drink please."

"Sure thing. Bet I can get back here in under a minute!"

Yomi grinned slightly as Tomo vanished from view. Despite being older now, she still hadn't lost her urge to constantly compete against others- thankfully it was still a pleasant way of competing as opposed to having to win whatever the costs. Unfortunately Yomi had also decided Tomo was still as big an idiot as ever.

Tomo slid down the landed and landed letting out a cry of "Banzai!" She walked by Chiyo waving to the younger team member, ignoring the pile of weaponry that had been left next to the doorway she passed through. Everyone had decided it would be a stupid idea to get rid of it- just in case. No one could be sure how long this machine could last, and Yukari had seemed particularly eager to keep the weapon she had taken from the downed helicopter.

"Could you get me a drink too please Tomo?" asked Chiyo politely.

"Sure thing Chiyo-chan" replied Tomo.

"Thank you."

Tomo glanced around at the room before picking up a plastic cup, filling it with an orange liquid that most of the group (except Yukari) liked quite a bit. She waited, just about stopping the tap before it overfilled. She stood holding it, hand shaking slightly. She didn't know what to do now- one false move and she'd spill it all over herself and the floor.

"Do you want me to take that?" asked Chiyo, who had entered the room.

"Please" said Tomo, her back facing the younger girl, not wishing to risk spilling it.

"Thank you" said Chiyo, taking the drink carefully and holding it in both hands, slowly sipping from the cup. She grinned and looked across at Tomo.

"It's really nice!" she said, "I wonder if we'd be able to find this stuff back home."

"I don't think you'd have much luck" said Yukari, who scared both of the girls, appearing holding a glass of water. "So enjoying our new kitchen huh?"

"I guess."

The group had been surprised to find another section found at the back of the machine. Two routes led into a large living quarters area, one route passing through the engine room, the other passing around it. They had found a small but well spaced out kitchen with a lot of drinks, but only a small amount of food that was still edible- the rest had turned mouldy.

As well as this there had been a moderate sized toilet area, with two showers and two restrooms. Eager to remove the sand and dust from their hair and bodies, all of the girls had ended up using them, Sakaki and Kaorin going first so the machine could then continue forwards. Kaorin had been disappointed to find each shower had its own small room- with three steel walls and a solid door. However she had caught a brief sight of Sakaki in nothing but a towel and had had a grin on her face ever since. She was glad she had a good imagination.

A small area with seven normal beds and three functional but not very comfortable looking beds also existed beyond the bathroom area, the prisoner Giarc "offering" to miss out on having one of the nice beds. It was cramped inside the room, but offered a place to sleep. Giarc had explained the existence of the area shortly after Yukari had stumbled upon it:

"This is a very rare vehicle class. It was designed to be self sufficient for several months, offering a place for the crew to live in and have protection should anything bad happen during prolonged conflict. It was built with the idea of maintaining a crew of up to seven people, as well as potentially three more members- either military or survivors from other machines. As you have noticed it is built into the back of the machine- unlike all other vehicle classes the rear armour is in fact the strongest and thickest, to protect the crew quarters. However for reasons I do not know of, this type of vehicle was soon discontinued. Supposedly only three of this class are still able to function, and all were considered lost."

Most of the team had been impressed by their good fortune. And only one among them had a question- and that was Tomo. She considered the question to be a matter of life or death, asking if there was a television present. She hadn't been impressed when Giarc replied with a negative answer. She was even more distraught when he suggested they might not exist on the planet.

---

Guzu-baka sat resting, perfectly still except for the arm Tomo was controlling, which was busy swerving around, as though trying to swat an invisible bee. The machine had come to a stop to allow Sakaki and Kaorin to enjoy some rest. Both were comfortable, sleeping as Chiyo sat trying to make a meal from the meagre supplies. She had insisted on trying, having watched in horror as Tomo approached the oven. They currently had limited food- it wouldn't be a good idea to burn a lot of it up. Chiyo stood, slightly uneasily preparing the food as Osaka stood behind her, watching but not saying a word. Without saying anything she then turned around and left, leaving Chiyo to ponder over what was going on inside Osaka's mind. A scary thought.

"Smells pretty good" said Yomi, arriving a short time later as Chiyo cooked some of the food.

"Thank you" said Chiyo smiling while carefully cooking the food. "Could you keep a watch on this for a while please?" she asked, Yomi nodding.

Chiyo left the kitchen area, passing through the engine room and arriving in the main torso area where she often spent her time. The prisoner looked up at her through one eye, having half fallen asleep.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I'm cooking a meal. Do you want some?" asked Chiyo kindly. Giarc paused for a moment before a look of surprise crossed his face. He moved to quickly try and get rid of the expression, Chiyo standing still, smiling.

"Very well…yes please" he said nodding his head. "Thank you Miss Mihama."

"That's ok" said Chiyo.

"One question" stated Giarc.

"Oh? What's that?" asked Chiyo.

"How do I eat with my hands tied together?"

---

"Miss Yomi I think it's time you got some sleep" suggested Chiyo, the team leader having returned to the head section.

"I suppose you're right" said Yomi yawning. "All we have to do is go in a straight line. Keep Osaka, Tomo and Yukari away from the controls and we should be alright."

"I'll try my best" said Chiyo, Yomi grinning as she stood up and stretched. As she disappeared below the purple sun began to rise, casting long shadows behind the sand dunes. In the distance Chiyo could make out what appeared to be a settlement.

"Can you see that?" asked Kaorin speaking into the transmitter.

"Yes" said Chiyo. "Keep going, we'll be there soon."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter seventeen

"Oh crap" muttered the guard as the giant machine approached his lone sentry tower. He gulped down the rising bile and quickly began to flick through the guidebook, not quite sure what to do in this situation. He jumped as a voice was emitted from an exterior speaker on the machine, a female voice rumbling around the high rocks. Trembling slightly he stared up at the machine.

"May we stop at your village please?" rang out Yomi's enhanced voice.

"I don't know…I think I'll have to get my supervisor" replied the nervous teenage guard, his voice cracking slightly. "Hey…boss" called down the teenager nervously.

"What is it?" asked the chief of security in a grumpy manner, appearing with a slice of what looked like chicken stuck in his beard. "Oh crap" he muttered as he saw the giant machine looming above him.

"Oh great machine, what do you want?" he asked, trying to please the pilots- didn't want to annoy them. He had started the day waking up late…he didn't want to end it crushed into the ground.

"We are looking for a place to stay" said Yomi speaking into the microphone.

"We aren't the enemy, we commandeered this vehicle" said Chiyo who was standing beside Yomi.

"Commandeered? What does that mean?" muttered Tomo.

"I think it's a type of army vehicle" replied Osaka, "I saw it in a film. An army guy got in a car and it was a Commandeered."

"Ah I see. It all makes sense now" said Tomo, placing a fist in her palm in triumph. "I learnt something new" she said, turning to Chiyo with a proud look. Chiyo laughed faintly and turned away, not sure about whether she should correct them or not.

Yomi sat silently, tapping her fingers as the guards quickly sprinted off, evidently to find out what to do. She made sure that Tomo stayed with Osaka and Chiyo in the torso section. While they waited for a decision from the superiors, it was best to appear none threatening. As such, Yomi had decided it would be a good idea to keep Tomo out of the arm section for now, just in case she had a sudden case of hyperactivity. She watched through the monitor as one of the guards, slightly pale faced, reappeared.

"You're free to enter. Please pass through the gates and be prepared to disembark."

"Understood."

"Sakaki, Kaorin, you hear that?" asked Yomi.

"Yep we did" replied Kaorin as they began to move forwards.

"Don't any of you find this a bit strange?" asked Chiyo, calling up to Yomi as well.

"What is it?" asked Yomi.

"Yeah, tell us" said Tomo, "Tell us, tell us!"

"We understand them, and they understand us. That's a bit strange isn't it?" asked Chiyo. She glanced around, looking up at the others, still being the shortest of the group. "Right?"

"I suppose that is kind of strange, but lucky for us I guess!" said Tomo.

"And it avoids any awkwardness too" said Osaka nodding. "Allows the story to advance."

"Huh?" asked Yukari, appearing from the engine room with a large glass of water filled to the top.

"What?" replied Osaka.

"Should you have water in the room with the engine and electronics?" asked Chiyo nervously, eyeing the large glass of water that shook slightly in her former teachers hands.

"I dunno" replied Yukari, failing to instil Chiyo with much in the way of confidence. "Nothing seems to have happened back here, so I guess it's alright."

"Please be more careful in the future!" pleaded Chiyo as Yukari slowly sipped on her drink. She nodded and turned around anyway, disappearing back into the engine room.

"Young squad member, you seem to have a lack of confidence in the old squad member" said Giarc, looking across at Chiyo. "However I can see why. And please do not tell this Yukari person I referred to her as old."

"Wow, even the strange alien thing is scared of Yukari" muttered Tomo, master of wise comments. "Ha, this is great!"

"Strange…alien…thing?" asked Giarc, bowing his head down slightly. Well he was alien to them, and he supposed he must be strange, but he certainly didn't feel there was any need for the thing comment.

---

The machine continued to move forwards, Yomi sitting back in her chair and viewing the passing scenery via the video screen. It seemed there were many cameras built into the hull of the machine, to allow a complete 360 degree view. There was little in the way of windows, to ensure greater structural integrity- the screens were the main way of seeing the world outside.

She watched as strong looking walls passed by them on either side. The walls appeared to be getting higher as the machine descended downhill, seemingly heading towards an underground settlement. A lone bird flew above, landing on a pyramidal peak, a forlorn figure looking down on the bulky machine below. The area was bleak a mixture of dull brown and dark yellowish environments, just like next-gen video games. Unfortunately for Yomi, she was certain that unlike next-gen video games, this wouldn't all be over in six hours time.

She was surprised as suddenly the sky vanished, the exposure of the screen and cameras adjusting before revealing a rocky roof above them. Slowly she began to lean back in the chair. This was starting to get boring now. In the lower level of the machine, Tomo had taken to chasing Chiyo around the cramped torso area, Giarc sitting with a look of displeasure, as though a foul dog mess had been placed under his nose. Osaka had sat in what was usually Chiyo's chair, and was busy spinning around in it. The chair slowly stopped spinning, Osaka sitting still with a confused look on her face, wobbly legs reaching down to touch the floor. She didn't stand up, doubting she could trust her legs to carry her.

Even further below Yomi sat Sakaki and Kaorin, busy moving the machine forwards. Kaorin was pleased at how well synched they had become at moving together. Perhaps now she could say she had a special understanding of Sakaki!

"Can you see that?" asked Sakaki, interrupting Kaorin's pleasant daydreams. Returning from her dreamy haze, she looked through the small screen built into the wall in front of her to see a group of men desperately waving flaming torches to signal for them to stop.

"Ready to stop?" asked Kaorin, the two have to stop together in a pattern to avoid falling.

"Yes" came the reply and the machine halted. A short distance away, Kaorin was certain the men had a collective sigh of relief. She sat back for a moment, not quite sure what to do, while the men outside milled around.

"Er…Sakaki…what do we do now?" asked Kaorin, speaking into the microphone.

"I'm not quite sure" replied Sakaki.

"Sakaki, Kaorin stay in place until I tell you to move" said Yomi, "We need to be able to move just in case."

Yomi received confirmation from Kaorin, and then climbed down into the torso area. She handed Chiyo, Osaka and Tomo their weapons, telling them to remain in the machine for now as she approached one of the exits. Slowly it opened, the door appearing and sliding up, Yomi finding herself looking down at the ground quite a bit below. A small gathering of poorly equipped soldiers had emerged.

"How did one of our kind get a weapon of the enemy?" called up what must have been the leader.

"Long story" called down Yomi.

"Are you friend or foe?"

"Friend, I really hope you are friends to us, or this has been a pointless journey" replied Yomi.

"What do you want?" asked the man.

"Supplies…a place to stay for the night…possibly some answers too."

"We would be greatly willing to extend a welcome to you, if you can find a way to get down here."

"Thank you" said Yomi. "Just give me a minute!"

She returned back into the machine, looking across at the others. They stood waiting, ready for orders.

"Tomo Osaka and Chiyo, you're coming with me. Take your bags, and keep a weapon in them, just in case. Yukari, you stay here with Kaorin and Sakaki. Make sure this machine is in running order, if we have to make a quick getaway."

"I guess I could try" replied Yukari.

"Good. Also we're bring our prisoner with us, I don't want him left here, potentially unobserved" said Yomi. "Will you come with us without putting up a fight?" she said, turning to look at Giarc.

"Yes" said the prisoner in a slightly defeated tone.

Shortly afterwards they were ready, and found an exit at a lower level of the machine. Yomi jumped out and landed on the ground, standing up as a man enthusiastically welcomed her. Chiyo slowly climbed out, the smile still on the mans face. Suddenly though it vanished.

"Just what do you think you are doing?" he asked in a threatening tone. Yomi slowly took a step back as the soldiers looked at them fiercely.


End file.
